Blood Rage
by FlyingBlueJay
Summary: Third installment of the Blood Stories. Alex and Jacob must find a dead body that walked out of a funeral home. They end up in the middle of a deadly match while having to battle with their own growing feelings for each other.
1. Mysterious

**Hey guys! So I'm finally back with the next part of the Blood Series. If you haven't read Blood Symbol and Blood Bonds yet, I suggest you start with those first otherwise you just might not know what's going on.**

**Disclaimer: Whatever you recognize, obviously isn't mine. Everything else is.**

**Okay, I'll just leave you to the first chapter. Took long enough. Sorry, by the way, I was busy helping my sister move to her new place.**

**Chapter 01: Mysterious**

Blowing on her freezing hands, Alex shifted from one foot to the other and back again, scowling at the door. With a huff of frustration she knocked again. The third time.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming," she heard someone say on the inside. The door opened and Jacob stood there, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Finally," Alex sighed, pushing past him and into the warmth of his home. It was her first winter in Forks and Charlie hadn't been kidding when he'd told her it was damn cold.

"If I had known you were coming I'd have been up to wait for you," he said with a smile, closing the door on the freezing wind blowing snowflakes into the house.

"Why were you sleeping?" Alex asked. "It's three in the afternoon."

"Long meeting last night," he replied with a wide yawn.

Sam and Emily had married in July. Three weeks after they'd returned from their Honeymoon in California, they'd announced that Emily was pregnant and Sam would give up phasing. Now the packs were joined back to one with Jacob as the Alpha. At least until he was off to college. So far it was planned that Quil would take over after him, because he'd still phase the longest of the older wolves due to his imprint on Claire.

"What are you doing here anyway?" he asked.

She pulled out a white envelope from her coat pocket and handed it to him. "Gill just finished all her invites for her parents' New Year's Eve party. I wanted to drop by anyway, seeing as we haven't seen each other the whole week and she asked me to give this to you." Next to school, her job as a waitress at the Lodge and soccer practice there wasn't all that much time left. Jacob's day didn't look much better. He had school and the patrols and had started repairing cars for people so he could save up some money for college. The people in Forks were just fine with that. The town's own mechanic had prices bordering on indecency and people usually had to drive all the way to Port Angeles to have their cars fixed. Jacob was well known, loved and respected for his skills with a screwdriver, he was close and much cheaper. It didn't hurt either that the goodhearted townspeople always liked helping out a promising young man from their midst prepare for his future by making small contributions.

"That looks pretty formal," Jacob said, pulling out the white card with the neat silver writing on it.

"Well, it's not something you should wear cut-off jeans to, no," Alex said with a smile.

"Do I have to wear a tie?" he asked, frowning. She knew he hated that.

"No, just a dress shirt," Alex answered.

"Means you gotta wear a dress," he said, grinning at her. She hadn't worn one since Emily and Sam's wedding. Up until then she'd hated wearing dresses. But Jacob had told her he liked the way she looked in it. She figured it wasn't all that bad. But she couldn't tell him that.

"Careful, Black, or I'll ask Gill to upgrade it to tux and ties," she said, smiling at him devilishly.

"You might hurt me with that, honey," he said, an equally wicked smile on his face, "but it'd be Charlie and Billy you'd kill." She chuckled. Gillian's parents had originally wanted it to be very formal, like the Galas they'd been to when they'd still lived in New York, but Gill and Alex had put a lot of effort into convincing them to take it down a notch. The people in Forks and La Push would only feel uncomfortable. None of the men here would freely wear a tie that much was for sure. The flannel shirt was the standard uniform here.

"So I take it I can tell Gill you and Billy are coming?" Alex asked. She hoped they would. Jacob looked absolutely delicious in a dress shirt and pants.

"Definitely. I've got no other plans and if Charlie's going my Dad won't have any other plans either," he said with a grin. There had been a slight rupture in the friendship between Charlie and Billy a while back, which they assumed had to do with Charlie finding out that his best friend had kept important secrets from him – like that Billy's son could turn into a bear-sized wolf. But now they were back to being joined by the hip.

They went into the kitchen, to get something to drink and Alex stared at the pile of college applications on the table, picking up a pamphlet from the University of Hawaii that rested on the top of the pile. "I thought you wanted to go to the University of Washington."

"I do. My counselor said it wouldn't hurt to apply to other Universities as well, though. Aren't you applying for other colleges, too?"

"Well yeah, but you seemed so certain." They were both applying for Washington and it was their first choice. Gillian wanted to go there as well, but Alex had also thought about Michigan and New York as well as a few others.

"Certainty won't help if they don't want me," he said, looking a little worried. His sophomore and junior years hadn't gone so well since he'd spent most of his time running patrols and falling asleep in class. Many of the other wolves had dropped out of school entirely. But despite missing half of the school years Jacob had aced math, physics and chemistry. He'd taken a Calculus crash course the summer before senior year and had aced that, too, so he could join the Advanced Placement Calculus classes.

"I'm sure they'll want you," she said, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder, letting her hand trail down his upper arm over his bicep – admittedly more for her benefit than Jacob's. "You're smart, Jake. You're exactly the type they want for their Mechanical Engineering courses." Which was what he was planning on studying. She was glad he had such high goals and had no doubt he'd achieve them, but she was worried about what he'd do after college. She was worried that he'd let himself be pulled right back into the simple life of La Push and end up being a small town mechanic. Not that there was anything wrong with simple, Alex preferred things that way, but his mind and talents would be wasted stuck here.

She'd talked about that with Billy once. His reaction was to put a hand on her shoulder and proclaim that, as long as Jacob had her, he wasn't at all worried about that happening. When she'd asked what he meant he'd told her that he had no doubt that she would keep pushing him to bigger and better things. _"After all, behind every successful man stands a strong woman,"_ he'd said with a strange twinkle in his eyes.

"If you say so," Jacob said, pulling her out of her thoughts. He yawned again. "Sorry. How about we watch a movie or something, I don't think I'll be up to much more today."

"Not all that much more we could do today. There are twelve inches of snow outside. I was worried my truck wouldn't make it through." Charlie had gotten her a truck right after she'd moved in with him for good. It was a black 1992 Ford F-150 pick-up truck. Charlie had gotten it cheap due to all the defects that would have to be repaired and that would cost a small fortune if brought to a mechanic. Fortunately Charlie and Alex had their own mechanic.

Jacob and Alex had spent hours working on the truck, searching the junk yard for missing parts and finding most of them, too. Alex had always been fascinated by cars, Old-timers in particular. She'd never gotten the chance to really work on cars aside from hot-wiring them, but through the boys at her school and particularly Lieutenant Greene, who was an Old-timer fanatic and liked spending his free time restoring them, she'd learned her theory. Jacob had helped her with the practice part, letting her do most of the work herself while supervising and giving advice. She'd always known he was good, but only then had she found out just how good he really was.

And he was happy.

That had been the best about it. Working on cars, constructing something, that was his passion. He practically glowed with delight and excitement, like a kid on Christmas Morning, whenever he opened the hood. She'd loved watching him then. It was so much more beautiful than the pain and betrayal that shot into his eyes whenever he thought of her cousin, Bella. He never thought of her then.

In his garage he was in his element. He was the penguin in the water.

They settled on the couch, watching Transformers. "I swear I'd become a lesbian for that woman," Alex said, meaning Megan Fox. Jacob burst out laughing.

"That would be a loss for the world of men," he said.

"Fine, a threesome then."

"You and Megan Fox." Jacob shook his head, grinning. "Damn," he breathed. "The image alone would send the poor guy over the edge."

This time Alex had to laugh. "Thanks." Sometimes she wished he'd just impulsively act upon the sexual attraction that was between them every so often. But that would be as bad as if she told him the truth about her feelings before he was ready for it.

"Already got all your Christmas presents?" Jacob asked.

"Since Christmas is in two days, yes. Well, almost all of them," she corrected herself. "I'd hoped it would still arrive on time, but I'm afraid your present arrives a little late. I hope you don't mind."

"No, that's fine. At least then I'll still have something to look forward to after Christmas." He was letting his fingertips trail over her skin, sending shivers of electricity through her. "Speaking of Christmas," he continued. "Dad wanted to invite you and Charlie over for Christmas Eve. The Clearwaters are coming, too."

"Yeah, I bet Charlie won't mind. I'll ask him later and let you know."

"Okay." He settled back against the couch cushions and Alex rolled up against his side. It were moments like these that she hoped would never end.

* * *

><p>Mr. Santiago grabbed hold of his client's hand. It was stiff and cold. Appropriate for a man who'd been dead two days. Mr. Santiago was the owner of the <em>Garden Hill Funeral Service Center<em>, which had been a family business since 1937 and one of the best funeral homes in Port Angeles.

"No, no, no. The muscle tonnage isn't nearly subtle enough," he said, turning to his son. Cameron had not flexed and massaged the arms and legs long enough to entirely relieve the body of rigor mortis. "What if his wife were to reach out and hold his hand? All she would feel is his death. Now apologize."

Cameron, looked up at him. "Sorry."

"Not to me," Mr. Santiago said sternly.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Thompson," Cameron said, turned towards the corps, laid out on the table between them.

"Now you may activate the pump." Mr. Santiago moved out of the way as his son walked around the table to the centrifugal pump by the tank containing the red embalming fluid. The tubes were already connected to the right common carotid artery. The injection of the embalming solution would displace blood and interstitial fluids, along with excess arterial solution. All of it was expelled from the right jugular vein. The process was collectively referred to as drainage.

"Let's give Mr. Thompson some privacy, shall we?" Mr. Santiago said, snapping off his surgical gloves.

His son marched out without a word.

With a shake of his head Mr. Santiago followed, closing the door behind him.

* * *

><p>It was already pretty late when Alex finally got home. She'd fallen asleep on Jacob's couch and so had he. Thus neither of them had noticed the passing time. The movie had been long over by the time they woke up again. Still, she didn't regret it. It was nice sleeping in his arms.<p>

She parked her truck, noticing Charlie wasn't home yet and walked up to the front door. Inside the house she flicked on the lights, hung up her jacket and walked into the kitchen. If Charlie wasn't there yet she might as well warm up one of Sue's frozen dishes for him before he got back. She was glad that Sue took care of the cooking. Alex didn't have much time for it and she didn't much like it either. She could cook, but it reminded her of the time she'd still lived in Detroit with her mother, Miranda. Miranda had never been in a state to cook so Alex had to take over. As well as the rest of the household, plus school and two jobs to scratch enough money together for the rent.

She couldn't believe it had been a little over seven months since Charlie had taken up position as her legal guardian and she'd moved in with him. And she thought things were running pretty smoothly. He didn't always agree to the things she did, but he kept out of her business most of the time. He considered her responsible enough to know what was good for her.

She saw the lamp from the answering machine blink and she pressed play. "Good evening, Miss Swan." It was a man's voice, but one she'd never heard before. He had a slight Spanish accent. "My name is Ruben Santiago. I'm the owner of the _Garden Hill Funeral Service Center_." She looked at the answering machine in puzzlement. A mortician? "I'm under the impression that you solve… mysterious cases."

"So let me get this straight," Jacob said, driving her truck. He didn't like her driving style, said it was too _fast and the furious_, so he always took over when he had to sit in the same car as her. Alex didn't mind. Jacob drove at a perfectly fine speed, not quite her speed, but at least he didn't bother sticking to the limits exactly. "This guy owns a funeral home and he calls you because he's got a case you might be interested in?"

"So it would seem." Alex had her legs up on the dashboard and a sheet of paper with directions on it on her knees. They could find their way perfectly fine to Port Angeles, but once there they'd need some guidance, so she'd printed out the directions to the funeral home on Google maps.

"I swear, if this turns out to be some zombie thing…" he let his empty threat trail. She knew he was about to threaten her with having to deal with this case alone. But Jacob would never abandon her, particularly not if he had to fear that she would have her brains eaten by zombies. And he knew perfectly well that she would never back off a case, no matter what.

"He didn't say what was wrong," Alex reminded him. "Maybe some urns fell off the shelf and now he thinks he has a poltergeist or something."

"Oh great, the next thing will be that we keep a green pet ghost and we might as well call ourselves _Ghostbusters_," Jacob said with little enthusiasm.

"Oh God no, you already eat so much. The last thing anyone needs is a ghost who can rival your appetite," Alex said with a smirk. "What I'm more interested in is how he could know that I investigate cases like this."

"Guess we'll find out."

Jacob pulled up to the funeral home and they got out of the car. A squat, elderly man, with wrinkled, olive skin was already waiting by the entrance.

"Miss Swan?" he asked as Alex approached. She gave him a nod and he looked over at Jacob, scrutinizing him closely.

"This is my partner, Jacob Black," Alex introduced him to Mr. Santiago.

"Black, huh? Oh yes, long history there," the elderly man said with a knowing smile. Jacob looked at Alex with questioning eyes. Alex could only shrug. She had no idea how much Santiago really knew. Or believed to know.

"Do come in." Santiago ushered them into the lobby, which was filled with flower arrangements and shelves of urns in all shapes and sizes. "Thank you for coming so quickly."

"Your message said it was urgent," Alex replied. There was a young woman, maybe in her mid-thirties standing to the side. She'd cried only recently, tear tracks still on her face, eyes red and puffy.

"Very urgent," Santiago said with a nod, waving the young woman over. "Mrs. Thompson, this is the investigators I've been telling you about."

"Seriously?" The woman looked at Alex incredulously. "What are you? Sixteen?"

"Seventeen," Alex corrected her.

"I assure you, Mrs. Thompson, for this particular case, Miss Swan is the best option," Santiago said in a calm, soothing voice. Probably the same voice he used on all the mourners. "She will assure that your husband is found."

"You'll find my Larry?" the woman said, still not looking very convinced.

Somehow Alex felt a little overrun. She didn't really know what this case was about, but how could she not say yes to the mourning widow? "I'll… do my best. Now, if you'll excuse me, we have some particulars to discuss about your case." The woman nodded and Santiago led Alex and Jacob into the preparation room.

"Thank you, Miss Swan, Mr. Black. I'm sure you will bring results," Santiago said.

"Yeah well, in the future you might want to make sure we take the case, before you start making promises," Alex said, a little peeved.

"And you can be discreet, yes?" Santiago continued as if Alex hadn't said anything. "This matter requires discretion above all else. And results."

"Why don't you just start by telling us what happened to the late Mr. Thompson?" Jacob said, a little impatient now.

"He arrived two days ago. Liver failure. Jaundice wreaks havoc with the skin tone so he was scheduled for an over-night," Santiago began to explain. "When I came in yesterday morning to check on the status of his embalming procedure he was gone."

It was starting to look like Jacob might have been right. God, she hoped not. "Was there any evidence of a break-in?"

"The backdoor was jimmied open. He must have come and left that way."

"You sure about that?" Jacob asked. He was looking at the metal table with a frown on his face.

"Cameron, my son, and I were in the front office working on some paperwork," Santiago said. "We would have seen him go out the front."

"And you haven't called the police, because… _why_?" Alex wanted to know. So far this didn't necessarily sound supernatural.

Santiago looked uncomfortable. "There are aspects of this situation the authorities wouldn't necessarily comprehend." He walked over to a metal closet and opened it. Inside was a monitor. Jacob and Alex walked over, to look at whatever Santiago wanted to show them. Santiago pressed play. "This was taken by our security camera."

The images were grainy, but Alex could clearly see Mr. Thompson lying on the table, a white sheet over the lower halt of his body. He had very wide shoulders and a massive physique, though not as nicely formed as Jacob's.

A dark figure moved into the room. Whoever it was, they had their back turned to the camera and where dressed entirely in black. The figure put a duffle bag on the foot end of the table and rummaged around for a moment. Moving up to Thompson's head, the figure removed the tubes for the embalming fluid, then held something up above its head in both hands.

"What is he doing?" she asked as the figure leaned over Thompson then righted itself again. The next moment Thompson's upper body lifted itself off the table and he sat up, got off the table and followed the figure out. Now, with the figure facing the camera, Alex could tell that he was wearing some kind of black mask with what she presumed were golden horns.

They stared speechless at the monitor at the now empty room. Alex could see why this might baffle the authorities.

"I'm going to need that disc," Alex said to Santiago. Gillian should take a look at it.

They were about to go when Alex turned to Santiago again. "How did you know about us? That we solve these kinds of cases?"

"Many colleagues have had experiences that would sound crazy to a layperson. When I started, I'd see things out of the corner of my eye that I chalked up to tricks of light. Now I accept the supernatural as a fact of life," Santiago explained.

"And apparently a fact of death," Alex added and he gave her a nod.

"Once the acceptance is made, it becomes easier to recognize the supernatural. You learn to notice things. Things other people ignore or rationalize away – unconsciously sometimes. You learn to see the signs, understand the stories." He looked over at Jacob, who'd been looking at the urns, though close enough to be in hearing distance. "The Quileute people have a magic of their own, since the very beginning. Is that not so, Mr. Black?" Jacob looked up, staring at Santiago intensely for a few long seconds before finally giving a single curt nod. "Word of you and your encounter with the darkness ten months ago has spread amongst those who aren't too ignorant to see past reality."


	2. Feelings

**Chapter 02: Feelings**

"Are you alright?" Alex asked once they left Port Angeles. Jacob had been unusually quiet and tense the whole way.

"Yeah," he said with a sigh, giving her a weak smile. "I just don't have very good memories of the last time I've been in a funeral home."

"Jake, I'm sorry. I forgot," Alex said, feeling terrible. "I shouldn't have asked you to come with me."

"No, seriously, it's not that big a deal," he replied, trying to play it down. "Besides, I prefer you asking me to come with you to you just heading out all on your own, completely unprotected."

"I'm not completely unprotected," she shot back a little snappishly. Alex was perfectly capable of taking care of herself and she didn't much like being patronized.

"I know you're not," Jacob said, smiling again. "Not in the human world anyway." She admitted to herself that she'd needed Jacob when they'd faced the demons, but she probably could have found a way to deal with the murdering ghost of Aidan Doyle all on her own. But she didn't know exactly what she was up against this time so she was glad he was with her.

Gillian's parents had had their Victorian house built on the fringes of the town when they'd moved to Forks. The first thing one noticed when coming up the dirt drive to the house were the three garage doors. The house was L-shaped, one wing being the huge garage. The house itself had large windows and a glass front door. The house had been built on a slopping hillside so that while it looked to be only one story on the front side, looking at it from the yard in the back made the basement look like another story.

Jacob parked Alex's truck in the driveway and they got out. Gillian let them into the house and led them into her room. Her room alone was almost larger than Alex's living room and it had its own bathroom.

"You're on another case?" Gillian asked, already looking excited.

Alex held up the disc with the surveillance footage Santiago had given her. "Take a look at this."

Gillian took the disc and inserted it into her laptop. "Who is that?" she asked when the image of the embalming room came up with the body on the table.

"Larry Thompson," Alex answered.

"He was the heavy-weight champion for about ten minutes, till the boxing commission found out he bet on himself," Jacob added. Alex looked up at him in surprise.

"You're only just telling me this now?"

"Sorry, I'd thought I'd heard the name before, I just couldn't quite put my finger on it. I only just remembered," Jacob defended himself. "Boxing's not my thing, I only heard about the scandal from Quil."

"So you're investigating his death?" Gillian asked, watching the black figure enter the room and stand over Thompson.

"Not exactly," Alex said. Thompson's body rose into a sitting position. "There, what is that? Some kind of Voodoo?"

"It's definitely a form of necromancy," Gillian answered. "Particularly foul magic practiced on the dead." She froze the screen at the moment where the mask from the black figure could be seen. She zoomed in on it. Now Alex could see that what she'd mistaken for golden horns where actually black ears with gilded interiors. There were gold markings all over the mask, forming eyes and a long snout. "From the looks of that mask, I'd say Egyptian."

"Hm." Necromancy just before Christmas. This was going to be a very interesting case.

"What else have you got?" Gillian asked.

"Well, the guy who broke in seemed to know the location of every one of the surveillance cameras so he picked the door closest to the prep room," Alex summarized. "Never shows his face. Left no fingerprints. He knows his way around the place."

"Well there's been a terrible crime committed against Mr. Thompson. There's nothing worse than an Easter Weekend," Gillian said, shaking her head.

Jacob and Alex both looked at each other, but neither of them knew what she meant. "I take it you don't mean the holiday with the chocolate and the bunnies," Jacob finally said.

"A resurrection," Gillian explained, rolling her eyes at them like it was obvious.

"There's a code word for walking dead?" Alex shook her head, grinning.

"So if the guy knew the place so well, maybe it was Santiago himself," Jacob suggested.

"No, I don't think so," Alex said. "He'd have the time and opportunity and the knowledge, but… he has respect for the dead. Lots of it. I don't think he would do that."

"Perhaps a disgruntled employee," Gillian said.

"Disgruntled employees steal office supplies," Alex replied. She leaned forward, putting her chin on her hand, her elbow propped up on her knee.

"Where does that leave us?" Jacob's fingers combed through his hair. He'd once told her it was a habit he'd picked up since he'd met her and that it would be her fault if he'd go prematurely bold.

"Why resurrect the dead?" Alex thought aloud. "Love?"

"His wife then," Jacob said.

"Maybe he arranged all this for himself." Gillian and Jacob looked at Alex skeptically.

"Is that what you think?" Jacob asked.

"No, it's a possibility," Alex replied. "He found out he had liver failure so he went out and found someone who could resurrect him."

"For the record," Gillian said. "Thompson was actually reanimated. Vampires, for instance, are resurrected."

"What's the difference?" Jacob asked.

"Thompson is still walking _only_ because of the dark magic, to serve the necromancer who raised him. He has no freedom of will. He has no life. Vampires maintain their personality, their intelligence, their wit. Their soul," Gillian explained.

"No matter," Alex said, stretching. "We won't get any further on this with the little information we have. Gillian, can you get some more information about this necromancy stuff?" Gillian nodded. "When's your dad's dinner?" Alex asked, turning to Jacob.

"Around eight, like always. He always tries to have it done by six, but he never puts the turkey in early enough," he answered with a shrug and a smile.

"Okay, then I can do some fieldwork tomorrow," Alex said.

"Whatever it is, don't make it too dangerous. I've got patrol duty tomorrow so I can't come with you," Jacob cautioned her.

"Don't worry, I'm just gonna drive back to Port Angeles and talk with Santiago's son and the widow. Safe enough."

"Your driving style and the word safe do not go well together," he teased her.

"We can't all be Driving Miss Daisy," Alex quipped back.

The subject of the missing body was quickly forgotten. They moved down to the basement living room, which was mainly for Gillian's use and they watched movies.

Alex was leaning against Jacob's chest, his arm around her waist. She had to keep shooting Gillian evil glares to remind her to stop smirking at the two of them.

It wasn't until it was almost midnight that Jacob said, "We've got to get going."

"No, we can sleep here," Alex moaned, already half asleep, eyes too heavy to open them. "I've got such a comfy pillow," she added, meaning his chest.

"I'm glad you're comfortable, but I for one have a lot to do tomorrow and you had a few errands to run yourself," he replied. She could feel him caressing her cheek, giving her even less incentive to move anytime soon. "Come on, honey," he whispered, kissing her on the top of her head. "Gillian's already asleep. We really should go."

Before he waited for her answer he simply put one arm around her back and the other under her knees and scooped her up while rising to his feet effortlessly. She was wide awake with surprise now, but she didn't mind if he carried her anyway. "Mm, my knight in cut-off jeans," she said, grinning, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Anything for you, my fair maiden," he joked back as he carried her up the stairs and to the front door. Unfortunately he had to set her down here, because she had to go through the annoying process of dressing for the freezing cold outside.

"I seriously envy you sometimes," she said, looking at his t-shirt.

He chuckled. "Don't. Imagine if you were running at the same temperature as me, I wouldn't have to hold you close anymore to keep you warm." She blinked at that. Somehow that didn't sound like his usual comebacks and it sent a swarm of butterflies fluttering through her stomach.

When she turned to him he was standing very close and there was a strange look in his eyes. One that made her weak in the knees and her heart start pounding madly. Her lips had gone dry and she had to wet them. The movement of her tongue caught Jacob's attention and his eyes shifted to Alex's mouth. There was a flash of hunger in his gaze, like he was about to kiss her, but then he snapped out of whatever trance he was in.

"Well, I guess we should get going then," he said and opened the door for Alex, who actually felt more like running straight into it.

* * *

><p>The drive back was silent. Both of them caught up in their own thoughts. <em>He'd wanted to kiss her. He'd wanted to kiss her.<em> Now Jacob wanted to bang his head on the steering wheel and he wasn't quite sure if that was because he'd let things go that far or because he hadn't pulled through.

From the beginning of their friendship there had always been an underlying attraction, he was perfectly aware of it. But he'd been too hung up on Bella to give it much thought. But in the last month or two…

Alex, with her tomboy manner, could easily take the position of a buddy, but at other times, when she softened a bit, or when he held her, tracing patterns on her incredibly soft skin, there was something else now. He would see her in a different light. She really was a girl and a gorgeous one at that. Wicked smart, rhetorical, funny, independent, hardheaded – sometimes bordering on single-minded – and always up for a bit of action. That was Alex most of the time and he liked that about her very much. But what he loved the most where the few moments when she'd let her guard down and showed him her softer side, the caring, warmhearted, loving side that philosophized about penguins. So far, that had only ever happened when they were alone together and he felt privileged to know he was probably the only one who got to see it. And lately he was feeling more than privilege. Something he had almost believed he'd never feel again. His heart beating faster, when her fingers combed through his hair or when he could hold her in his arms. The butterflies and the feeling of just being in the right place when she hugged him back.

It had actually started on the day of Emily and Sam's wedding. They'd danced with each other and the song _Feels Like Home_ from Chantal Kreviazuk had been playing. His heart had suddenly begun beating a different rhythm. They'd looked into each other's eyes and he could have drowned in hers. In that moment they'd been all alone in the world, nothing else mattered. He'd never wanted to let her go again and he'd felt tremendous relief when she'd agreed to the next dance as well. They'd ended up dancing all night long until Charlie had stepped in to take her home. It was in that moment that Jacob had realized that his heart was beginning to move on and that he was falling for Alex. Hard.

But there was still something lingering, clouding his emotions. He wasn't sure if it was actually still his feelings for Bella or the memory of the pain he'd suffered because of his feelings. Maybe both. Bella was still not entirely out of his life, but the wound in his chest was as good as healed. Or at least it didn't hurt much anymore. It was more like the pull of an abrasion when the skin around it stretched.

And then he didn't know if Alex felt the same for him. There were times he could tell she wanted him. Her heartbeat and breathing sped up and he could smell her desire. But sex and love were not always the same thing and he didn't want to be just friends with benefits. He wanted the whole package and he didn't think he could handle being rejected again.

He pulled up to her house and cut the engine. They got out and Alex rounded the car to the driver's side to stand next to Jacob. "Well, I guess that's it," he said lamely. Oh God, he was going to make things even worse.

"Yeah, I guess," she replied. As if nothing had happened, she threw her arms around him, like she always did when they said goodbye, pressing her lips to the side of his neck. His heart nearly stopped every time she did that. "I'll see you tomorrow night, then."

"Yeah, good night, Alex," Jacob replied, giving her a final squeeze, before letting go with some difficulty.

"Good night." She walked to the house and Jacob watched until she'd gone inside, suddenly fighting the desire to just run after her and finish what he'd started earlier.

Instead he turned around and began his trip home.

* * *

><p>Alex leaned against the door, breathing heavily. What had happened? He'd never looked at her that way before.<p>

She'd spent so many nights dreaming he'd look at her like that. Now he had. What did that mean? Was he ready for a relationship? Was he past Bella now? Or had it just been a meaningless, one-time thing?

The more she thought about it, the more she came to the conclusion that she might have seen only what she wanted to see.

With a sigh she went into the kitchen and grabbed a carton of orange juice out of the fridge. She didn't even bother with a glass, just drank right out of the package, wishing there was vodka in the juice.

Seven months. Seven months of dreaming, hoping, wishing and pining after a man who was still in love with another girl. She was at the end of her emotional rope. Still, she knew she'd wait for him even longer if she had to.

In the beginning she'd thought that maybe it would go away again, like a crush eventually would, but it hadn't.

"You're still up late." Alex nearly jumped a foot in the air when she heard Charlie behind her, spilling a bit of orange juice over the front of her sweater. "Did you only just come home?" He walked into the kitchen and sat down on one of the chairs.

"Yeah," Alex admitted, leaning against the kitchen counter. She had no curfew on the weekends or during the holidays, so it didn't really matter. "It got a little late at Gill's. What are you doing up?"

"Couldn't sleep. No big deal," Charlie said. "Was Jake there, too?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Just wanted to know where the frustration in your face comes from." Alex wasn't sure if Charlie had actually figured it out himself or if Sue had told him, but even he knew about her feelings for Jacob.

She walked over to him and sat down on one of the still free chairs. "Be honest with me, Charlie, is this a waste of time?"

"I don't know, kiddo," Charlie said truthfully. "Certain risks must be taken in life. You just need to figure out which ones."


	3. Christmas

**Chapter 03: Christmas**

"This whole walking dead thing must be pretty weird for you," Cameron Santiago said as Alex followed him into another room. He was carrying a pot of plants, putting it on a shelf next to a displayed urn.

"Not so much," Alex replied honestly. After everything else she figured this was bound to happen eventually.

"I've seen a lot of weird stuff," Cameron said, stepping back to check the pot's effect in its new position. Cameron was fairly tall, about six foot one, lanky, with a boyishly round face that he tried to hide under a beard. He wore a button-up shirt and tie with a sleeveless sweater over it, reminding Alex of the typical school nerd. Still, physically he wasn't an entirely hopeless case. Still, at the age of about thirty, she doubted he had as much as a girlfriend. The funeral home would scare the women away, not to mention the slightly strange edge Cameron had. "I grew up here, you know?"

"Was that difficult for you?" Alex asked, watching him as he twisted and turned the pot in this and in that direction. Meticulous.

"No, it's a pretty typical childhood actually," he answered. "Except for all the dead bodies." She supposed she could guess where the strange edge came from. "I used to hide under the caskets during the funeral and pretended to drive the hearse. This whole place is like my playroom." Alex couldn't quite imagine being able to bring up so much enthusiasm for a funeral home.

"I think other kids thought I was pretty cool," Cameron continued, finally done with the flower pot and turning to face her. "You know, in a freak show kind of way." He gave her a half smile and she returned it. People had to deal with their lot in life and Cameron seemed to have found a way to deal with his. "When my seventh grade teacher died in a car accident they brought her body here," he told her. "And everyone wanted to see it."

"And here I was having slumber parties." Alex had never had something like that. At least not at that time, but she knew other girls at that age usually did that sort of thing.

"Chase, my best friend at the time, we were pretty young, he dared me and I dared him back, you know how that goes. He pulled back the sheet and she sat straight up." He'd practically whispered the last part, trying to make it sound more mysterious.

"She wasn't dead?"

"Oh, she was dead," he said. "Head-on collision. I could swear though, she was looking right at me. I thought my Dad was gonna kill us." Then he'd at least have been in the right place.

"How about recently? Have you noticed anything strange?" Alex asked, getting back to her case.

"Dead body walking around is pretty strange," he replied matter-of-factly. That was true.

"What about disgruntled former employees or dissatisfied customers?"

"No, it's just my Dad and I," he said with a smile. "And we've never had a dissatisfied customer." He made to walk passed her, but stopped once he was standing right beside her. "Until now," he added, before he continued on his way. His tone hadn't made it quite clear if he was referring to the dead or the living customers. "I'm afraid I have to get back to work. Christmas is pretty busy."

"Thank you for your time," Alex called after him.

Alright, so she hadn't gotten all that much more information from Cameron, except that the family worked alone.

She made her way to the address of the Thompson's, wanting to talk to the widow. It was a small, run-down, two-story house just by the road. Alex knocked and Mrs. Thompson opened the door.

"Hi, I wonder if I could ask you a few questions," Alex said and the woman stepped aside for Alex to enter.

"If you don't mind, I have to get this done," Mrs. Thompson said. Alex looked at all the boxes around the otherwise almost empty house. There was a shelf left in the living room that was filled with trophies and pictures of Larry Thompson as a boxer, which Mrs. Thompson was currently working on, putting everything in more boxes.

"You're moving?"

"I have to," Mrs. Thompson replied. "No insurance. Larry tried hard, but he wasn't the best with money."

"Do you mind if I ask you a few questions about his activities in the last few months?"

"He wasn't here, he was at the _Dome_. It's a sports joint," she explained, when Alex looked at her questioningly. "Big screen TVs, big-breasted waitresses, big everything." Disdain was clear in Mrs. Thompson's voice. "He took a job as a host. Six hundred a week plus free food and booze to sit at the bar and schmooze the paying customers. It was embarrassing. He was only thirty-six and he was acting like his career was over."

"Yeah, he was quite a boxer," Alex replied. She'd checked up on a few of his fights this morning. He really could have gone far.

"Forty-six won? Every win a knock-out? He deserved that championship-belt," Mrs. Thompson said angrily.

"I heard about the bet."

"The commission decided to make an example of him," Mrs. Thompson spat. "Fined him _and_ lay down a ten year ban?" she shook her head. It really was a harsh judgment.

"Must have made him pretty angry," Alex said, completely understanding.

"He gave up," Mrs. Thompson said, the anger making way to despair. "I tried to tell him that his career wasn't over, but he couldn't get over the guilt and humiliation. That's when he started drinking." She looked up at Alex in confusion. "What does this have to do with someone stealing his body?"

"Nothing," Alex replied. She didn't know if it meant anything. But it was always useful to know the backgrounds of the people involved. "How about friends or family? Is there anyone else who might have taken his death particularly hard?"

Mrs. Thompson grabbed one of the pictures off the shelf and a Jack Daniel's bottle that stood hidden behind it. It only contained a few more sips. "He traded them all in for bartenders in the last few months," she said, throwing the bottle into the trash can with a little more force than was exactly necessary. "You can tell me if you're not going to find him."

"I can't make you any promises," Alex said truthfully. "But I will do everything I can." This woman had been through a lot and losing her husband just before Christmas must be terrible. "Thanks for your time, I'll show myself out."

It was getting late when she drove back to Forks. She just had enough time to drop by the police station before she had to drive to La Push for Christmas dinner at the Blacks.

Charlie was at his desk and Alex walked up to him from behind, standing there, not quite certain if she should really do this.

"I don't think anyone can hover as well as you, Alex," Charlie said without looking up.

"Do you know Larry Thompson?" she asked him, not surprised he'd noticed her. If a cop didn't notice someone standing behind him he wasn't cut out for the job – or as good as dead.

"Larry… the boxer, yes," he replied, after thinking about it a moment.

"Yeah, his body was stolen from a mortuary two days ago," Alex explained.

"And the reason the police wasn't called, is…?"

"This is where it gets a little… complicated." Charlie sighed and looked up at her with a tired expression.

"Is this your way of telling me you're on a case again?" he asked, looking at her sternly.

Unfazed by his expression or tone, she pulled up a chair to the side of his desk. "It was theft by resurrection. Reanimation," she corrected herself. "He's walking around," she said, making walking gestures with her fingers. "First I thought maybe it was someone who had something against Thompson or maybe against the funeral home. I got thinking, and I wondered, you know, maybe this has happened before. Maybe he's not the only one."

"Well, if body snatching is the new joyriding I haven't heard anything about it," Charlie said.

"Could you check?"

"What? Body snatchers?" he said, chuckling.

"Yeah. Or grave robbers."

"Look, Alex, I find out why people go _into_ the ground, not why they come out," Charlie replied. "Call me when he starts eating brains."

"He's eating brains," she said dryly.

"Nice try."

"His body was stolen!" Alex insisted.

"Making it a case for Major Crimes."

"And he's walking around!"

"And that is a Vegas act," Charlie said. "Look, Alex, I have five active cases here," he said, tapping a pile of folders. "I wish I could help you, but I can't."

"Fine, if you find something anyway, would you let me know?"

"If I find something, I promise you, you'll be the first to know," he said with a nod. "Now let me finish this so we can head over to dinner. I'm starving."

"Let's hope Billy made enough then, or you'll have to fight Jake, Leah and Seth over the scraps."

Billy made more than enough from what Alex could tell. When they arrived at the Blacks' house, the small kitchen table was groaning under the weight of the biggest roasted turkey Alex had ever seen, roast beef, pumpkin pie, beans, mashed sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy and cranberry sauce.

"Merry Christmas!" Jacob said, pulling her into a hug when she'd relieved herself of her coat. He'd make a comfy jacket, too, in the cold winter nights, she noted with a grin.

"Merry Christmas," she replied, smiling up at him. The others greeted them as well and Alex went over to hug Leah. "I haven't seen you in ages."

"Sorry, I was so busy with school, I couldn't visit last weekend," Leah apologized.

"How are things going with Steve?"

Leah blushed slightly, a huge grin spreading over her face. "Wonderful. He'll be coming tomorrow to spend Christmas Day with us and then I'll spend Boxing Day with him and his parents. I'm so nervous, I've never met them before."

"Just stay clear of the topic '_I'm the one doing your son_' and you should be just fine," Alex said, patting her on the shoulder.

When Leah had first introduced Steve Avers to all of them Alex would have never expected it to work so well between them. Steve was not the type of man she would have seen Leah together with. He was – and there really was no better term for it – a nerd. Tall, rather gangly, dirt blond hair, light stubble and blue eyes behind glasses with thick black frames. He was a computer analyst, confident in his abilities and very enthusiastic when the subject of his work came up, shy and quiet for everything else. Alex supposed there was something cute about him in a puppy sort of way. Still, Steve couldn't have been a bigger contrast to Sam who had _alpha dog_ written all over him. But none of that seemed to matter to Leah, she was as in love as a woman could possibly be and Alex was very happy for her. Leah deserved to be happy after all she'd been through. And just to think, if they ever had children and those children would get his intelligence and her raw, sexual magnetism… those nerds would get _laid_.

"God, I'm gonna make a total fool out of myself, I just know it."

"Leah, you've battled an army of vampires, trust me, you can do this," Alex reassured her.

"You're right," Leah said, standing up straighter. "This is nothing. I'm just meeting my potential future in-laws. _Oh God!_" She sank back on the couch, looking pale and sickly.

With a sigh Alex admitted defeat and moved over to Seth, who was having fits of silent giggles, watching his sister. "I'm so glad I don't have to worry about that stuff yet."

"It might come faster, than you think," Alex replied sitting down on the chair beside him, feeling Jacob taking the seat to her other side. He put a hand on her lap and she covered it with her own.

"Nah, girls don't really interest me right now," Seth said, waving it off.

"Just until you meet the one that turns your life upside down," Jacob said with a wistful smile. "Enjoy the carelessness as long as you can, Seth, once it's gone you can never have it back."

"Very theatrical," Alex said to him.

"Not at all," Jacob replied with a shake of his head. "Sometimes I think I could have led a perfectly happy life if I had never found my interest in the opposite sex."

"Is this the point where you try to come out of the closet?"

"No," he said, giving her thigh a light squeeze that almost made her moan. "I'm just saying that life would probably be easier without love in it."

"But so much more boring, too," Alex said.

"True." He leaned back, leaving his hand where it was on her lap, his thumb drawing small circles on the outside of her thigh.

"Everybody grab something to eat," Billy shouted and Alex was suddenly sitting alone. Rolling her eyes at the werewolves' appetites she got up at a more moderate pace and walked over to the kitchen. Jacob, Leah and Seth had already piled mountains of food on their plates. Charlie, Sue and Billy were standing next to them, shaking their heads.

Once they were done the humans went over to get something to eat as well. They grabbed large portions, because they knew by the time they'd be done with their first portions there'd be nothing left for seconds.

Alex returned to her seat between Seth and Jacob, balancing her plate on her knees, ignoring the wolves that were scarfing down their food with nothing that reminded of table manners.

"Honestly, you guys really can't go in fine restaurants," Alex said, shaking her head at them. "Or any other restaurant."

"We don't have to go in a restaurant," Seth replied with a full mouth.

"No one _has_ to go in a restaurant, Seth," Alex lectured him. "You do that because you want to. With someone. For a special occasion."

"We _can_ behave, you know?" Jacob said, once he'd swallowed the last of his food. "But what would you have to complain about if we did?"

"Oh, so you're doing this all for me?" Alex said sarcastically. "Aww, Jake, you're always so considerate of me." He had mashed potatoes on his face the next moment. "There, now at least you look as sloppy as you eat."

He laughed, wiping away the mashed potatoes with a napkin. "That's another thing you have to learn, Seth. No matter what you do, it's never right with women."

"And to think the poor boy's got you in his head giving him tips all day," Alex said, shaking her head with an exaggerated sigh. "Leah, I really don't think you should leave your brother alone with this bad influence."

"Bad influence?" Jacob looked at her incredulously.

"Trust me, Alex, I feel bad enough every time I do," Leah said with a laugh.

"Bad influence?" Jacob repeated himself.

"Have you gone deaf or are you about to turn into an oversized parrot?" Alex asked turning to him.

"That's it!" He launched out of his chair. Having been prepared for it, Alex managed to dodge his arms, jumping out of her chair and sidestepping him. Without a glance back she ran for the door, laughing. "You can't run from a wolf, Alex," he shouted after her.

"Watch me!" she yelled back. She could hear the others laughing as Jacob came after her. She threw open the door and hurried out into the dark, cold night.

She barely made it ten steps out into the snow when two strong arms came around her waist. It came so suddenly that she lost her footing and stumbled, pulling Jacob to the snowy ground with her. He landed on top of her and she wiggled around so she could face him, grinning up at him.

"Nope, no feathers yet," she said, stroking through his hair.

He lifted himself onto his elbows so his entire weight wouldn't crush her. "And you won't find any ever," he replied, smiling down at her. She looked up into his deep, dark eyes and her heart started racing, her body suddenly highly aware of all the places where it connected to his, their proximity. Her eyes travelled down to his full, kissable lips and she wished she could just lift her head those few inches.

She laughed, snapping herself out of it. "I really thought I was past the age for making snow angels, but… since I'm already here," She moved her arms out to the side and pulled them up and down. She couldn't move her legs, because Jacob's were in the way. "Will you help me up?"

He pushed himself off the ground, then held out his hand for her to grab. She did and he pulled her to her feet. She turned around to look at her masterpiece. Well, not much of a masterpiece. The arms fit, but there were the markings of where Jacob had had his arms and the legs were all wrong. "I've made better."

"I like it," Jacob said, putting his arm around her. "It's a combined effort." Only now did she notice the cold and her sweater was wet in the back. "Let's go inside," he said, noticing her shivering. "I'll get you a shirt." He pressed a kiss to her forehead, then ushered her back into the house.

"Had fun rolling in the snow?" Charlie asked, grinning.

"A lot," Alex replied. "I made a snow angel."

* * *

><p><strong>This was actually supposed to come around Christmas, but I got through the last stories faster than I thought and I didn't want to keep you guys waiting that long. So consider it a very, very early Christmas present.<strong>


	4. Necromancer

**Sorry it took so long, but my studies have kept me very busy these past few weeks and I really only have enough time right now to upload this.**

**I really would have liked a few more comments on the last chapter. I really thought such a close and intimate moment between Alex and Jacob would get me a bit more feedback.**

**Oh well, here's the next chapter. Enjoy!**

**Chapter 04: Necromancer**

"I hope you have a good reason for this, Gill," Alex said sleepily as she opened the door. It was still dark out, which was hardly surprising at five o'clock in the morning.

"Why are you still sleeping? Don't you have a case to work on? You'll be dragging it into the New Year and that's bad luck," Gillian said, walking past Alex into the house.

"It's bad luck waking someone this early," Alex grumbled, closing the door again. At least Charlie had been able to sleep through Gillian's massacre of the doorbell. Probably due to all the eggnog he'd poured down his throat the previous evening with Billy and Sue.

"Well I found out what the mask was and I thought you wanted to know."

"What is it?"

"The mask is a representation of Anubis," she said.

"The Egyptian God of the dead," Alex replied with a nod.

"According to the myth he resurrected Osiris from the dead," Gillian continued, pulling something out of her bag. It looked like a book. She handed it to Alex. "My mother works for the museum in Seattle, she lets me borrow reference material from time to time." Alex read the cover; _Egyptian Funeral Rituals And Resurrection Mythology by Chase Crawford, B.A. (Univ. of Washington) and M.A. (Univ. of Washington)_. It was the manuscript for somebody's Bachelor and Master thesis.

"You sure we can use this?" Alex said, not entirely certain.

"Absolutely. You can't find everything on the internet. Consider this your Christmas present."

"Aww, now I feel bad for not getting you anything," Alex said sarcastically. "Now all I have to do is find a necromancer in Port Angeles."

* * *

><p>When Jacob came over by late noon he found Alex sitting in her bedroom on her queen-sized bed, bent over a book with a notepad on the side.<p>

"Homework on Christmas?"

She looked up at him with a '_don't be ridiculous_'-expression. "No," she replied, throwing back the cover so he could read the front. "Egyptian Funeral Rituals and Resurrection Mythology by Chase Crawford.," she said in a dull voice.

"Sounds exciting," he said, picking his way through the mess that was her bedroom to sit down next to her on her bed.

"Well, it's three hundred pages of University double Dutch complete with footnotes. He did have the courtesy to throw in a few photos."

"Is there anything of value in it?"

"Well, the Egyptians believed the soul was divided into seven parts; The _Ren_ is your true name, the _Sekhem_ is energy, the _Akh_ is best described as your ghost, _Ka_ is life force, _Ba_ the soul, _Sheut_ is the shadow, and the _Sekhu_, your physical remains," Alex explained, tapping on her notes with her pen. "The important ones for us are the Ba and Sekhu, the soul and the remains. The Ba was what was summoned back into the Sekhu during the resurrection ritual, because they believed that if the soul didn't recognize its remains then it wouldn't return to it."

"Hence mummification of the corpse," Jacob said with a nod. "But what does that have to do with Thompson?"

"His Ba is now trapped inside the Sekhu, so his soul can't move on to the afterlife."

"Damn," Jacob hissed. "And all this crap during Christmas, honestly it's the worst possible timing. The poor Thompsons." It really was against all humanity to trap a soul in a dead body.

"Yeah," with a sigh Alex shut the manuscript and rubbed over her eyes. "I've been at this since Gillian brought it over at five this morning."

"Oh, honey," he pulled her against his chest, inhaling the scent of her coconut shampoo. "How about a short break? I've brought you your Christmas present."

"You did?" she sat up.

He pulled out the small box he'd wrapped it in and handed it to her, his heart thumping wildly. What if she didn't like it?

Quickly she ripped the paper off. When he'd been old enough not to believe in Santa Claus anymore he'd always wondered why his parents bothered wrapping the presents in the first place.

"Oh my God, Jake," he heard her say breathlessly as she opened the small jewelry box.

"I saw it when Quil dragged me to the mall in Port Angeles and I knew I had to get it for you." It was a small, elegant, silver pendant in the form of a penguin on a delicate silver chain.

"Jake, I love it," she said, still looking at it openmouthed. "Please help me put it on." She handed him the necklace and turned around holding up her hair.

He made sure he held it with the right side up and draped it over her throat, pulling the ends together in the back. "I can't believe you remembered the story I told you," she said.

"I don't think I could ever forget that," Jacob replied, letting his fingers brush over Alex's incredibly soft skin. The night she'd told him about why she loved penguins was the night it had hit him like a sledgehammer. In that moment he'd realized that he really did love her – every part of her; from the rough, stubborn tomboy and the warm, sweet, fun-loving slob to the philosophical, wicked smart, sexy woman.

He clasped the lock together and she turned towards him again. "How does it look?" He looked down at the necklace. The pendant came down to just above the swell of her breasts and he liked that.

"Perfect," he replied.

"Oh, Jake, thank you so much, I really love it," she said, throwing her arms around him. His heart leapt with joy as he saw the radiant happiness in her face. No way she could fake that. "Thank you, thank you, thank you," she said again and again, punctuating each thank you with a kiss; one on his right cheek, one on his left and one on his forehead.

"I'm really glad you like it–"

"Love it!"

"I'm really glad you _love_ it. I was so relieved when I found it," he admitted. "I had no idea what to get for you."

"You wouldn't have had to get me anything, Jake," she said with a smile. He noticed how her fingers kept playing with the penguin.

"But you got something for me," he replied. "I would have felt terrible."

"I really wish I could give you mine. Damn those package deliveries. And always around Christmas."

"It doesn't matter," Jacob said, taking her hand and playing with her fingers, intertwining them with his. "I'll love it once it's here."

"I think I'll call them to have it sent directly to your house. Then you don't have to wait for me to bring it to you."

* * *

><p>Charlie was rubbing his freezing hands. He really hated getting out for work on Christmas, but they had found a body.<p>

The body in question had been dumped unceremoniously near a hiking trail. A jogger and his dog had found it. It was the corpse of a man in his mid- to late-thirties, Caucasian, dark, very short hair and thick eyebrows. What irritated Charlie was the Y-formed cut on his chest.

"Hey," he called out when he noticed Dave Connery coming towards him with a box of doughnuts.

"Hey," Connery replied.

"Nothing like a body-dump early in the morning on Christmas," Charlie said, getting up from his closer inspection. "Trace evidence is completely spoiled. No witnesses. There's never any way in with these."

"They said he was all beat up and his chest all cut apart," Connery said, lifting the foil that was supposed to shelter the body from the cold elements until the coroner could come through.

"That's a thoracic-abdominal incision. This guy's had an autopsy already," Charlie said.

"How do you know it's not some guy playing amateur-pathologist?" Connery asked.

"Johnny Nicks? Iron Fist? Local wrestler?"

"Yeah? What makes you think of him?"

Charlie pointed at the body. "The guy died of a brain aneurysm a while ago."

"And that's Nicks?" Connery looked down at the dead body again.

"That's interesting," Charlie said. "I've only just heard of a body snatching case involving a missing boxer."

"That is weird."

"Nicks is supposed to be six feet under. What do you wanna bet that Thompson and Nicks were taken by the same guy?"

"We investigate homicides. We're not the lost and found," Connery said with an uninterested shrug.

"Two dead athletes in a month, two corpses taken, that doesn't raise any red flags for you?"

"Doesn't add up to murder."

_Course not_, Charlie thought sarcastically. Connery just didn't want a case over Christmas.

The pathology didn't have a building of its own. Forks was too small. Instead it was located in the basement of the hospital. Dr. Philip Rogan had been the local coroner for the better part of twenty years now and Charlie trusted him with his judgment.

"Hey, Doc, did you have time to look into the two names I sent you?" he asked when he came into the building about three hours after wrapping up the crime scene.

"Johnny Nicks died of a brain aneurysm. Larry Thompson succumbed to liver failure," Rogan said, pulling up the two reports on his computer.

"So they both died of natural causes?"

"Nicks definitely natural causes, I can't be as certain with Thompson," Rogan said. "According to Thompson's toxicology report his blood contained high levels of Paracetamol, an over-the-counter pain medication. High level of Paracetamol can cause irreversible liver failure. The attending pathologist in Port Angeles should have flagged it."

"Are you saying that somebody poisoned him?" Charlie asked.

"Or he poisoned himself."

When Charlie got home he wasn't entirely surprised to find Alex and Jacob sitting at the kitchen table poring over case notes Alex had made. She really did have the makings for becoming a good cop.

"Hey Charlie," she said, looking up when he hung up his gun belt. He didn't bother securing the weapon like he used to when Bella was little. He trusted Alex to know how to handle a gun if necessary.

"Still on the Thompson case I see," he said, sitting down with them. "He's not the only body who's gone missing this month."

"What?" Alex asked in surprise. She'd come up with the idea that he wouldn't be the only one, but apparently had hoped to the contrary.

"Yeah, Johnny Nicks, local wrestler. We found his body all beaten up this morning. He died of a brain aneurysm a while back, but the bruises and the broken neck were all post mortem and very recent."

"Charlie, please be careful, this isn't your usual body-snatcher," Alex said, looking concerned.

"Yeah, maybe not, but one's a possible homicide," he said. "Thompson may have been poisoned."

Jacob and Alex looked at each other, realizing their case was just about to go in an entirely different direction. "Any suspects?" Jacob asked.

"Maybe," Charlie answered. "We all know the type of killer who prefers poison as the murder weapon."

Alex thought for a moment. "Nah, I don't think the wife's good for this," she finally said.

"Well, thank you very much, I'll take that under advice," Charlie said. "You know, this kind of connects our cases."

"Yeah and you've been so helpful up until now," Alex said sarcastically.

"Come on, what have you got?"

"Actually not much," she relented. "All I know is that Thompson was resurrected by a type of Egyptian necromancy." She tapped at a thick book that was lying between her and Jacob.

"Okay, do you have anything I can actually use?"

"I'm not sure, but I think there's a connection between his death and his abduction," Alex said.

"Alright, you go with that, I'll see what the wife has to say."

"You do that, but I'm certain it wasn't her," Alex replied with a shrug and returned to her notes.

"There is one more thing," Charlie said and grabbed a clear evidence bag from his pocket, handing it to them. It was a piece of clay with markings on it. One side was rounded, like one half of a heart, the other half was jagged, indicating that it had been broken there. "The pathologist found this stuck in Nicks' throat."

"Those markings are Egyptian," Jacob noticed, looking at it.

"In the surveillance tape the necromancer put something in Thompson's mouth," Alex remembered. He was going to have to ask for that surveillance footage, though he probably couldn't use it for his case anyway.

"They look the same on both sides," Jacob said, flipping the clay piece over in his palm. "That's the _bennu bird_ and that's the symbol for Osiris," he said, pointing to some of the scratchy markings at the top. "And that's the Ba," he continued, pointing to a horizontal cartouche at the bottom underneath another, longer cartouche, to which he pointed next. "What's this though?"

"The name, probably," Alex replied. Apparently they had done their studying. "We'll talk to Gillian again."

"And I'll go talk to the wife tomorrow," Charlie got up and walked out the door.

"Before Mr. Thompson passed away, was he on any medication?" Charlie asked, sipping from his coffee while he looked at Mrs. Thompson across the table in the tiny interrogation room.

"Not that I know of," she said calmly.

"Was he taking aspirin or ibuprofen or any kind of pain killers?"

"Alcohol," she replied coldly. "You're asking a lot of questions about a man whose liver gave out."

"Well, Mrs. Thompson, the coroner found abnormal levels of Paracetamol in your husband's blood. It's a headache medicine… or poison," he said, watching her closely. "Depending on the dosage."

"You think I killed my husband?" she said angrily. "For what? The money?" she asked sarcastically.

"Oh, I'm not blaming anyone of anything, it's just that… if he was hitting you or you found yourself just not being able to take it anymore…" He let her fill in the blanks.

"Should I be calling a lawyer?"

"You tell me."

"Larry was a good man who gave up on life," she said, leaning forward.

"Then maybe someone helped him along."

"If anyone poisoned him it was those bastards at the_ Dome_ who fed him all that booze," she said with contempt in her voice. "Why don't you go and arrest them?"

Though a sports bar, the_ Dome_ would not be a place where Charlie would ever go to. It wasn't his kind of atmosphere or his kind of people. Right now it was pretty quiet, at least back here at the back entrance. There was just one young man sitting there. He was extremely pale and had black, chin long hair, a sharp nose and chin, which gave him a slightly rat-like appearance.

"Hey," Charlie said.

"Oh, we're not open for another hour," the young man said, looking up at Charlie.

"Chief Swan, Forks PD," he identified himself, holding up his badge. "Mind if I ask you a few questions?"

The guy looked reluctant, but obviously wasn't going to turn down a cop. "Ever see this guy hanging around here?" Charlie asked, holding up a photo of Thompson.

"Yeah," the guy said, "Larry, he works here. Or he used to. Nice guy. He tipped even though he got free booze."

"So you guys must have talked a lot, huh?" Charlie asked.

"He talked to his fans, aside from that he kind of kept to himself," the young man said with a shrug.

"Did you ever see someone who had a quarrel with him?"

The man thought for a while, then shook his head. "Nah, everybody loved him. And if they didn't they stayed out of his way."

"Coroner found something suspicious in his autopsy, so… you know how it goes," Charlie said casually, trying to see the other man's reaction. He seemed to remain calm. "Well, thanks for your time. I didn't catch your name."

"Chase Crawford," the man said.

"Well, if you can think of anything else with Larry I'd sure appreciate a call," Charlie said handing Chase a business card.

"Sure thing," Chase said and put the card in his coat pocket.

"Oh, one more thing," Charlie said, turning back to Chase. "Did you ever see a guy named Johnny Nicks hanging around here?"

Again Chase seemed to think about it. "No, if he did, I didn't see him."

"Alright, thanks again."

* * *

><p>"So, bennu bird, Osiris, Ba, and the name," Alex summoned up, pointing to the individual markings on the clay shard. "I think this is a requisition form for a soul."<p>

"There'd be rituals involved in enchanting the tablet," Gillian said, "but essentially yes."

"But why does he snap the tablet in half?" Jacob asked, looking at the broken ridge.

"Maybe the guy who wrote this can help," Gillian said, holding up the manuscript. "He mentions a lost chapter in the Book of the Dead, describes a resurrection ritual involving a clay tablet. He's the closest thing we've got to an expert."

Suddenly something dawned on Alex. "He may be more than that," she said. "In the same part he describes that his thesis is being practiced to raise the dead. I think Chase Crawford might be our necromancer."

* * *

><p><strong>Okay, that's the new chapter. A little more about Charlie's investigation. And Alex, Jake and Gill's. <strong>

**If anyone's wondering about the penguin necklace, that belongs to a short story chapter in Blood Series Short Stories, called - what a surprise - 'Penguins'. If you haven't read it yet, it's not crucial, but cute. I think.**


	5. Motive

**Chapter 05: Motive**

The apartment block Chase Crawford lived in reminded Alex uncomfortably of her old home in Detroit. Admittedly, this wasn't nearly a shabby and dingy, but it was the closest she'd come to a neighborhood like this ever since she'd moved in with Charlie.

They walked up the flight of narrow stairs and down the hall when Jacob suddenly stopped. "Wait!" Alex stopped, too, looking back at him in confusion. "You know when you go to a horror movie and there's always that stupid girl who goes inside the creepy house even though there are a gazillion signs saying '_Keep Out_' and the whole audience is screaming '_Don't go in there_'?"

"Yeah?" she asked.

"You're that girl."

Alex rolled her eyes at him and continued down the hall until they reached the apartment labeled '204'. "This is it," she said quietly. "Is anybody home?"

"I don't sense anyone," Jacob whispered back. Which didn't necessarily mean that there wasn't anyone waiting behind the doors.

Alex tried the doorknob and the door opened with a soft click. It was unlocked. "Never a good sign," she murmured, and pushed the door open into the dark apartment. With her flashlight she looked around, letting the beam fall onto the table with the remains of a fast food lunch, the cluttered couch area and the messy kitchen.

"Could be your apartment," Jacob teased.

"Shut up," she replied, smirking at his dark silhouette. She knew she wasn't exactly the neatest person. She didn't like wasting her time with unnecessary cleaning.

She swung her flashlight around and the beam caught a pair of legs. The next thing she knew Thompson was storming towards her. Jacob pulled her to the side and Thompson ran past her, his fist going through the wall that separated the kitchen from the living area. Jacob crouched between Alex and Thompson, ready to fend him off if he should try to take another go at her. His teeth were bared in a menacing, inhuman growl that made the hairs on the back of Alex's neck rise. Being with Jacob, day in and day out, sometimes made it easy to forget his other nature.

"Stay away," Thompson said through clenched teeth, turning towards them again, his eyes were bloodshot, crimson rings formed around his irises. "Or I'll kill you, too."

"He can talk?" Alex was seriously surprised. In zombie movies they were usually silent, aside from a lot of groaning and moaning. Then again, Thompson wasn't actually a zombie, since he had his soul, or Ba. Zombies had no soul or will, that was how they could be controlled. How was Thompson controlled, though?

"He can do a lot more than that," Jacob reminded her.

Thompson charged at Jacob, who dodged and Thompson went through the door that led from the kitchen to the fire escape. Alex saw him go over the balustrade and ran after him, Jacob ahead of her. Jacob already had a foot on the balustrade, ready to leap after Thompson, but Thompson was gone.

"Damn," Jacob hissed and climbed back down again.

Together they went back into the apartment and Jacob flipped the light on.

"You could really hear Thompson," Alex said, a shiver running down her back. "He's trapped in there."

"I'd feel sorrier for the man if he didn't just try to take my head off," Jacob replied, but he didn't look very angry, not like he had a moment ago. "What are we looking for?"

"Anything," Alex explained, grabbing a rubber band from her pocket and tying her curls up in a messy bun. She began by looking at the book shelves. There were a few books she supposed he read for fun, one or two self-help books, a cook book that looked unused and a handful of books on Egyptian mythology. Nothing that screamed out at her.

Next she grabbed the garbage from underneath the desk and emptied it out on the floor. There were more wrappings of fast food and a few crumpled up sheets of paper. She grabbed the papers and flattened them out. Nothing interesting. She grabbed the last paper and unfolded it. It looked like instructions for something in the internet, but she didn't know much about this stuff and couldn't really figure out what it meant. Nor did she know if it was important. Deciding to better be safe than sorry, she put the piece of paper in her pocket. She'd ask Gillian to look at it tomorrow. She knew better how to work with computers.

The rest of the apartment brought no results. It was obvious that someone had cleaned up.

* * *

><p>"Well, that was a waste of time," Alex said with a sigh when Jacob drove back. He looked over at her. Like always she had her feet up on the dashboard, her hair still up in that messy bun. He liked it when she had her hair up, it suited her.<p>

"Not entirely," Jacob replied, moving one hand from the stirring wheel and placing it on her knee. "At least we have proof now that Chase Crawford is indeed linked to Thompson's disappearance. Maybe his death, too."

"I guess so," Alex said with a sigh, shifting slightly so his hand slipped to her upper thigh. He should have pulled away, that would be the right thing, the friend-thing to do, but he didn't. He couldn't, not with all his energy focused on keeping his hand where it was rather than letting it slide lower, towards her center.

But she didn't protest. She made no indication that she even noticed it. But it was always like that, he realized. Every time his hand would stray to a more intimate position, she just seemed to ignore it. Sometimes he could feel a shiver going through her body, or her heart speed up, but she always ignored it. And he had no idea what to do with that. Did she not feel the sexual tension between them? Or the more romantic one? Or did she simply not want to feel these tensions?

It was so hard to tell with Alex. Bella had been easy to read. She'd been like an open book to him and he'd always known how she felt. But if Alex didn't want someone to see what she felt then no one could. He wondered for a brief second if Edward could; if he could read her mind or if she was like Bella, a natural shield.

But there was nothing that ever betrayed anything that went past their friendship. Maybe it was just him. He just thought… the other night, during Christmas dinner, when he'd chased her out into the snow and he'd ended on top of her… he'd just thought there had been a moment. One of many. All he'd wanted in that moment was to lean down and kiss her. She'd looked so beautiful with all the snow in her hair, her cheeks flushed from the cold.

But Alex was always beautiful. She was beautiful when she smiled at him. She was beautiful when she cried or when she got angry. She was beautiful when he made her laugh again. She was beautiful when she was thinking hard about a case. And she was beautiful when he managed to distract her from it.

He nearly started banging his head against her truck's steering wheel. His friendships were always uncomplicated. Being friends with Bella had been easy as breathing. With Alex it seemed even easier, because she was such a naturally happy and joyful person who didn't mind being childish from time to time and they always seemed to be on the same page. But every time he wanted to take a relationship to the next level, things seemed to get messy. There had been Bella and her infatuation with Cullen, which had ended up in Jacob's heart being torn out and stomped on. And this time it was his own insecurities, souvenirs of his first attempt down that road, that seemed to make it impossible to just walk up to Alex and kiss her senseless the way he wanted to.

He was just so scared of her reaction. If she didn't feel the same way about him… he didn't think he could handle that again. On the other hand, if he didn't try it, someone else would. Alex had plenty of boys interested in her and he probably couldn't stand it either to watch her walk away with someone else. He was stuck.

If only it were easier to read her. If he could just get one tiny glimpse of her having feelings for him, too. But maybe that was the problem; there was nothing to see, because there was nothing.

"I just don't understand," Alex said, still lost in thought, staring out at the darkness beyond the two cones or light from the headlights. "How could Crawford know we'd come to his apartment? He obviously cleaned out all evidence."

"Maybe it's been that way for a while," Jacob replied. "You know, better safe than sorry."

"So you think he keeps a dead guy in his apartment every night? As a guard dog?"

"Coincidence? That happens sometimes, you know?"

"Maybe," she said with a sigh. "I just want this wrapped up. I feel so bad for Thompson."

He knew what she meant. It was bad enough to die, but to be called back and trapped in the dead body… Jacob shuddered at the thought. He wondered if the vampires felt like that. Trapped. But it wasn't really the same.

"And the wife," Alex continued. "First her husband dies just before Christmas and then his body is stolen. It's just not fair. I wish at least Charlie would leave her alone."

"Charlie has to do his own investigation," Jacob reminded her. "You're looking for a body-snatcher, he's looking for a killer."

"I'm just not sure if those are two different people," Alex replied. "If Thompson really was killed, then chances are it was by the same person who took his body. Probably Chase Crawford."

"But we don't know for certain," Jacob said. He hoped it wasn't the same person. He didn't like the idea of Alex going after a killer. A body-snatcher was one thing, but someone who was capable of taking a life was a different matter entirely.

"Her husband's dead, Jake," Alex said, her voice sounding thick. "He's never coming back. She loved him and now he's gone and she'll never get a chance to talk to him again or to hold him or…" her voice broke and she just shook her head. "It's just not fair," she finished with a whisper.

Jacob looked over at her again. She wasn't crying, but he could see the distress in her eyes. He was surprised to see just how personal she took this. He didn't quite understand why. "Alex, are you alright?"

"Yeah it's just… if I had someone in my life, someone I really loved, I think the worst thing that could happen was for them to just… disappear. And so unexpected. I mean, Thompson was only thirty-six. People don't just drop dead with thirty-six. That's when you have a career and raise children, when the best part of life is just beginning. He shouldn't have had to die," Alex said, continuously looking out her window instead of at Jacob. "And to think someone might have helped along, that someone poisoned him, tore that life away and tore the love away from that woman… it makes me so furious and so…"

_Sad_, Jacob finished for her in his head. It wasn't something she generally liked admitting to openly.

He thought about what she said and he could understand. He'd been there. His love had died and now she was gone and he'd been devastated. And he had been angry, angry at Cullen for being the one to do that to Bella.

Now it was Alex he feared for. Should something happen to her… he couldn't even finish the thought. No one would ever hurt Alex, he promised himself that. Even if she wanted it, like Bella had, he'd fight harder this time. He'd go over and above her choices if he had to. Anything to keep her safe and alive. Even if it killed him. Even if she'd hate him for it.

"Jake, are _you_ alright?" Alex asked softly. He noticed that he'd gripped the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles had turned white.

"Yeah, I… was just thinking back to…" He didn't need to finish his half-truth. He saw the compassion in her eyes and… something else. It had been there and gone again so fast he couldn't really tell what it had been. Disappointment?

She reached out, her fingers caressing through his hair. A shiver ran down his back. He loved it when she did that. "I forgot," she said apologetically. "You already know what that's like. Sort of."

"Yeah, well, it's not exactly the greatest feeling in the world," he replied, fixing his gaze on the road ahead. But it wasn't so bad anymore. Nowadays when he thought of Bella there was barely anything left of the yearning and the pain. The memory of those feelings wasn't gone and he knew he'd carry it around with him until the day he died, but it didn't cripple him anymore. The physical pain he used to feel in his chest was almost gone, only an echo of the pain he used to be burdened with. He felt like he could live again, be happy again. And he was happy whenever he was with Alex.

"No, I guess it's not," she replied, stroking through his hair one last time before she let her hand fall to his lap. Not having bothered with a seatbelt, she scooted over to him and put her head on his shoulder. He got a whiff of her coconut shampoo and inhaled a little deeper. She'd wanted to change the shampoo back to the floral one she'd used during the two months she'd lived with Charlie back when they'd first met, but he'd told her he liked this one better. Surprisingly, she stuck with the coconut after that.

* * *

><p>"What you found was code for some kind of internet website," Gillian informed them, tipping on her computer. "And here we go."<p>

The website started up and Alex and Jacob looked over Gillian's shoulder at the screen. The background was black with bluish mist and then writing faded into the screen. _Necrodrome_.

"What's Necrodrome?" Alex asked.

"_Necro_; dead, _drome_; arena," Gillian translated as she clicked on the enter button that appeared bellow the name of the website.

The name Necrodrome, moved up into the upper right hand corner. On either side were Egyptian symbols, in the center was something loading and underneath that stood _Thompson VS Nicks_.

Before either one could comment on the names, the video in the center had loaded and played. It depicted a chain-link cage, people around it, cheering and hollering.

And two people fighting inside the cage.

Alex immediately recognized Thompson and the other guy was probably Johnny Nicks, the body Charlie had found. She could see the Y-formed cut on his chest.

"Is this a snuff film?" Gillian asked, sounding like she was about to be sick as they watched the two men fight. There seemed to be no rules to their battle, not like in real boxing.

"Technically they're already dead," Jacob said, sounding just about as nauseated as Gillian.

Thompson threw Nicks over his shoulder and Nicks landed on the concrete floor with a loud thud. He tried to get up again, but Thompson had his arms around his head the next moment. There was a sickening snap as Thompson broke Nicks' neck and the body tumbled to the ground, unmoving.

"Okay, I've seen enough," Alex said, her stomach turning as the people standing around the cage hollered and whistled.

"Excuse me," Gillian said and pushed Jacob out of the way, hurrying into her bathroom.

Alex slipped into Gillian's abandoned chair and stopped the video.

"Are you okay?" she called after Gillian.

"I'm fine," she called back, her voice shaking.

"Okay, let's see what's next," Jacob said, taking deep breaths to calm himself. Apparently they'd found more at Crawford's place than they'd expected. She clicked on the button saying '_Next Fight'_. A new screen popped open with the same black, misty background. The words '_Next Fight_' stood large in the middle and underneath was a countdown. It read 22:45:13, the seconds just running down, changing even as she looked at them.

"Damn, the next fight's in less than twenty-four hours," Jacob said.

"I hate working with deadlines," Alex said and grabbed the phone from Gillian's desk.

"Who are you calling?" Jacob wanted to know, but she didn't answer him.

"Hey, Charlie, it's me," Alex said once Charlie picked up. "I've got something for you."

"What?" he asked.

"A motive."

* * *

><p><strong>Okay, I know I took forever to update. I'm currently writing a lot of exams and I have a lot of studying to do. I'll try to update a little more again. But it's also up to you guys, as you know. The faster I get a lot of reviews, the faster I update.<strong>


	6. Unmasked

**Chapter 06: Unmasked**

"Alright, that's enough," Charlie said, frowning at the screen when Alex showed him the video of the fight between Thompson and Nicks. "Where did you get this?" he asked.

"Gillian dug up a thesis on Egyptian resurrection," Alex explained, holding out the thick book to him. "We went to talk to the author and found Thompson's corpse guarding his apartment and then I… yeah," she finished waving at the screen in distaste.

Charlie grabbed the manuscript from Alex, looking down at the cover. "Chase Crawford," he said in a voice that rang with recognition.

"You know him?"

"Thompson's favorite bartender," Charlie said, still looking at the manuscript. If Charlie had talked to Crawford, at least that explained why he'd cleaned out his apartment. He'd been worried about the cops snooping around.

"Wait, so Nicks dies of natural causes, gives Crawford the idea for Necrodrome… then he needs a challenger," Alex said, piecing it together.

"So Crawford slips Thompson a Paracetamol soda…" Charlie continued.

"He had ample opportunity," Alex interjected.

"…steals the body and sets up his next little cage match," Charlie finished, waving at the screen.

"Yeah, but take a look at this," Alex said and clicked to the countdown for the next fight. Now it was less than twenty hours away. "It's a countdown timer to the next match. Crawford is promising another fight, which means he needs another fighter."

"Yeah, alright," Charlie said, thinking quickly. "I'm gonna send an APB out on Crawford and I'll see what our tech guy can find out on this website." He walked over and grabbed his coat, ready to leave.

"Okay, Jake and I will–"

"You're gonna stay out of it," Charlie ordered.

"What? I give you information and you cut me off?" Alex said indignantly.

"What, didn't I say thank you?" Charlie replied sarcastically.

"Okay, you know what? Finding Crawford is your case, but retrieving Thompson's body is mine," Alex said.

"Knock yourself out," Charlie said and he was out the door.

"Don't mind if I do," she murmured, grabbing the phone and dialing Jacob's number.

"Hello?"

"Hey Billy, it's me, Alex. Would you tell Jacob to come by tomorrow once he's done with patrol?"

"Sure, Alex, I'll tell him. Say, how's Charlie?"

"Very busy," she replied.

"It's Boxing Day," Billy replied a little surprised.

"If only the dead knew that, too," she muttered, but Billy caught it and laughed.

"I suppose that's true," he said. "I heard you got my boy involved in another case."

"Don't worry, Billy, I'll keep his ass out of trouble," Alex said with a grin. And what a nice ass it was!

"I hope so."

"My present hasn't arrived yet, has it?" Alex asked.

"Sorry, honey, nothing's come yet, but I'm not sure if they even deliver on Boxing Day," Billy answered. "Maybe tomorrow."

"Yeah, let's hope it comes before New Year," she said, her hopes for that slowly ebbing away. Maybe it would come in time for Easter.

"What did you get him anyway?"

"Aren't we nosy," she replied. "You'll find out once it's there."

"He give you his present already?"

"Yes, he did," Alex said, her hand immediately coming up to play with the penguin-shaped pendant. "I absolutely love it."

"Good, he spent weeks looking for it in every store and on the internet."

Alex looked up in surprise. "He told me he found it in the mall in Port Angeles when he went there with Quil."

"Did he now?" Billy said with a laugh in his voice. "Well, then forget what I said." No way she could forget that anymore, though.

* * *

><p>"Jeff, any luck with that site?" Charlie asked coming into the room. The tech expert was still sitting at his computer, doing things Charlie couldn't explain to save his life. He'd given him the website address last night and apparently it was difficult to track. But he needed results now. If the countdown hadn't been changed then time would run out tonight, in only a few more hours.<p>

"Server's in Bulgaria, they tried hiding it with a diverted IP address," Jeff said.

"That's a bad thing," Charlie said, though it sounded more like a question.

"Upload is done here over this access point. Via wireless."

"And that means… what?" Charlie wanted to know. Jeff typed in a little more until there was a peep he obviously found satisfying.

"Searching location," Jeff mumbled, watching the screen. "Triangulated," Jeff concluded with a nod.

"Okay," was all Charlie could say to that.

Jeff bent down to the printer that stood next to him on the floor and grabbed the newly printed sheet, holding it out to Charlie. It had an address on it.

"That's in Port Angeles," Charlie said. Down by the harbor.

"Yep," Jeff said, obviously pleased with his work.

"Okay, great work, Jeff," Charlie said, clapping him on the shoulder. "Thank you." He'd go there tomorrow morning.

"Go get them, sir," Jeff called after him, when he was already halfway out the door.

Charlie pulled up in front of the old, abandoned warehouse. Cutting the engine he got out of his car and pulled out his flashlight. He knew he should call for backup, but how should he explain what they could possibly find inside? In his line of work, the dead usually remained so.

He slipped through the gab in the gate of the fence. He assumed children had forced the gate open as far as possible. Places like these where very popular for kids of all ages; the young ones playing here during the day and the older ones drinking and possibly doing drugs without anyone spotting them at night.

The backdoor was locked and Charlie didn't have his niece's skills for breaking and entering, so he skirted the building, looking for another way in.

It came down to the front door, which stood wide ajar. He didn't much like going through there, because he'd easily be spotted by whoever might still be there. But all remained calm. He went inside and looked around, finding the cage he'd seen in the internet video.

Crouched against the chain-link side of it, was a figure, dressed in a gray sweat suit. Charlie pointed his flashlight at the figure and it began to move, startled by the light. Grumbling, it lifted a hand to shield it's reddened eyes.

"Thompson?" Charlie asked, recognizing the face.

"Please," Thompson breathed. "Let me die!" He got up and began rattling at the cage wall, screaming like a trapped animal.

"Looks like we found our next challenger." Charlie whirled around. There was Chase Crawford, a bullet hole in his forehead. Behind him stood a tall figure, all dressed in black, with a black and gold mask on. It had ears and reminded him distantly of some sort of dog or jackal.

* * *

><p>"Charlie won't give me the address," Alex said angrily. "I know he's headed there about an hour or so ago." She looked at her wrist watch. For months now she'd grown accustomed to wearing a watch with a thin, black, leather strap on her right wrist and a broad black, leather cuff on her left that covered the two thin scars. She didn't really mind the scars, but people always thought she'd attempted to commit suicide and she was tired of their pitying stares. "It's only like another hour to the next fight."<p>

"Can you pull up the website again?" Jacob said, walking to her nightstand and opening the top drawer. For a second she was uncomfortably aware of the birth control pills she had in there, but if he saw them he made no comment.

She pulled up the website like he wanted her to and played the new video. The cage was empty at the moment, but people were already gathering around it. He returned to her desk with a pair of earphones he'd fished out of her nightstand and plugged them in, sitting down in her chair. He closed his eyes, looking extremely concentrated.

Suddenly he yelled, "Alex!" He dropped the earphones and jotted something down on a scrap piece of paper next to him.

"Please tell me you've got something," Alex said, coming over to him.

"Maybe," Jacob said. "I can hear something in the background of this audio."

"Can I?" she asked.

He looked up at her with a grin. "You're gonna have to trust me on this one, Alex. Unless you can hear subsonic sounds."

"Okay," she said with a resigned sigh. "What is it?"

"Bus 79 Port Angeles, to Sequim," he repeated what he'd heard.

He cleared the space for her and she sat down, pulling up a list of bus stops. "There's the 79," she said. "It's down by the harbor. We'll head down there and work our way up."

She got up and went for the door.

"You know this can't have a happy ending, right?" Jacob asked and Alex stopped in the doorway. "When we find Thompson we will have to stop him. Literally."

"Yeah," she said, swallowing hard. "But at least his wife will be able to say goodbye properly. That should be worth something." Jacob nodded and followed her out the door.

Jacob pulled up to the warehouse and Alex immediately noticed the police cruiser parked just down the road. "That's Charlie's car," she noted. Her heart started thumping wildly. Had something happened to him?

They got out and the cold air hit her like a calming slap in the face, pushing the rising panic down again. She could not afford to lose focus now, particularly if there was a chance Charlie was in danger.

"We'll have to have a little talk about sharing," she snapped, striding towards the warehouse. They were in the back and she could hear commotion at the front.

"At least we know we're in the right place," Jacob said. They'd rode through the streets of the old harbor for about thirty minutes before they'd finally found this place.

They rounded the warehouse and found a mass of people streaming toward the front door, a bouncer flanking it, collecting bet money.

"There's definitely something going on," Jacob noted.

"Guess we should have dressed up," Alex said and walked forward to the back of the crowd, that was quickly thinning outside.

"I'm looking forward to this," Alex said with a sigh as they walked up to the bouncer who was just sliding the heavy, metal door shut.

"I wish I could share your enthusiasm," Jacob replied.

"Looks like this could be a tough party to crash," Alex said when they came closer to the bouncer who'd now shut the door and turned towards them.

"Looks can be deceiving," Jacob said, walking in front of Alex with his back to the bouncer until they were in reaching distance. He spun around too quickly for the bouncer to react, and caught him in the stomach with his fist. The man flew back, hitting the metal door and sliding to the ground.

"Ooh," Alex cooed falsely. "That's got to hurt."

She walked up to Jacob, giving his shoulder a pat. It really was extremely useful to have a werewolf as a friend. "Okay, you know what? Go to Charlie's car, give me three minutes then switch on the sirens and head back in here."

"Alright," Jacob said and started jogging toward the car. Even his jog was faster than a human's.

Alex stepped closer to the bouncer, who was getting up again. Jacob wasn't the only one with a good punch though and Alex prided herself in having a pretty nice right hook. The bouncer went down again and she stepped over him, opening the door just a small enough gab for her to slip through. The screeching and groaning of the metal was luckily drowned out by the masses cheering inside. She wished she could make sure each and every one of these people got arrested as well, but she had to concentrate on Crawford now.

She saw the cage. Above it on a scaffold stood a figure, dressed in a black suit. It wore the Anubis mask. "Welcome to the Necrodrome," it shouted, the voice obviously male. In his outstretched hands he held, no doubt, the broken halves of the clay tablets.

Alex looked down into the cage again and her heart nearly stopped. There was Charlie. And Thompson. And a young man with black hair and a rat-like face with a bullet wound in his forehead.

She hid behind a stack of wooden crates. "Any time now, Jake," she muttered.

As if he'd waited for her signal the sirens from Charlie's cruiser turned on. The figure above the cage turned and looked around. She couldn't see his face, but she was sure he was scared now.

The crowd began screaming and practically stampeded to the exit. And the necromancer stormed down the ladder.

She grabbed her flashlight and turned it on, holding it up straight ahead of her like the cops did and holding her other hand in the flashlight's shadow, so it couldn't be seen. Stepping out of her hiding place, she called out, "Nobody move!"

"Alex, wait, he's got my–" Charlie began, but the necromancer had already pulled off his mask and was pointing Charlie's .45 straight at her. "–gun," Charlie finished lamely.

Alex stared at the necromancer for a moment in disbelief. Cameron Santiago, the son of the man who'd asked her to investigate. He'd seemed so harmless when she'd talked to him in the funeral home. Now, with his hair disheveled from the mask and the gun in his hand, he just looked insane.

She lifted her free hand, to show him that she had no weapon in it. "Great, so you and Crawford are partners. Nice business plan," she shouted at him.

"We _were_ partners," Cameron replied. "Till someone got scared." He lifted a little pouch, rattling it. There was a dull clinking coming from it and Alex guessed he kept the clay tablets in there. "Chase! Come forward!" he demanded. The young man with the rat-like face did as he was told.

_So that's how it works_, Alex thought. He used the other half of the clay tablets to control the dead. That's how he'd gotten them to fight each other.

"The power to resurrect the dead and this is how you use it?" Alex said, side stepping towards the cage entrance, keeping Cameron, and the gun in particular, in sight.

"It's how it was meant to be used," Cameron answered coldly. "I'm not going to grow old massaging dead people's hands. I spent years watching my father fawning over them like they were something special. More concerned about them than his own family." He followed her with the gun, pushing her further towards the cage door. "The dead are meant to serve us. They will serve me."

"They're people," Alex countered. "And you're enslaving them for some sick sport."

"Fight?" He gave a short, humorless laugh. "No, it's a promotional tour. A chance to showcase their skills. And when the right people realize what I've accomplished here… I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought of the military applications." He rattled the pouch of tablets again. "Chase, take her."

The door behind Alex screeched and she looked back to see the rat-faced man come towards her. "Oh, right, Chase, your childhood buddy. The one with your seventh grade teacher," she said, remembering the story he'd told her. Apparently friendship didn't mean a lot to Cameron.

She could try to fight, but there was no point in it at the moment. Timing was everything and she stood no chance with a gun pointed at her face. Chase was evidence enough that Cameron obviously knew how to aim. So she walked backwards into the cage, sidestepping Chase, who still stood in the entrance and closed the door once she was through…

* * *

><p><strong>Oh, oh, looks like Alex and Charlie are in a bit of a tight spot. Lets hope Jake gets back in time to help them.<strong>

**I'm afraid you'll have to wait until after New Year's for the next chapter, cause I'm flying home to see my family tomorrow. I'd hoped to finish the story on New Year's day, but things just never seem to work out the way you want it to. Sorry.**

**How long you'll have to wait for the next chapter after New Year's depends on how many reviews I'll find once I come back. It's the holidays, you've got nothing to do but eat, sleep, unwrap presents, eat and sleep some more. So maybe you can take five minutes out of that busy schedule and leave a review. **

**I that sense: I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!**


	7. Goodbye

**Chapter 07: Goodbye**

"I told you to keep your nose out of this," Charlie snapped at her.

"Well, I ignored you," she replied simply. "Besides, someone's got to save you."

"Yeah, and you're doing a wonderful job, by the way," he said sarcastically, his eyes following Thompson, who was pacing up and down in front of them now. Their situation did seem a little dim right now, she admitted to herself. Trapped in a metal cage with two dead corpses and a madman with Charlie's gun on the outside.

_All in a day's work_, she thought ironically. "It gets better, don't worry," she said to Charlie. "Alright, Cameron, I'm giving you one last chance to surrender," she shouted to the man, who was standing in front of the cage with the gun pointed towards her.

He laughed. "I got you prisoner. I've got the zombies and the gun."

"Maybe," Alex said, a smile forming on her lips, "but that doesn't look so rosy from where I'm standing."

She'd seen him, crouching low on one of the wooden crates that were stacked up near the cage. And when she'd said that, Jacob jumped down from his hiding place. Cameron was too slow to react. Jacob knocked his arm with the gun upwards, making Cameron lose hold of it and the gun clattered onto the floor. He pushed Cameron back, who fell to the floor, skidding to a stop after sliding across the floor for about five feet.

"Kill them," he managed to choke out.

Immediately Thompson dove for Charlie, going for his throat. Alex wanted to help him, but Chase grabbed her from behind, throwing her against the side of the cage. He grabbed her by the throat and started to press down on her windpipe. Her first instinctive reaction was to claw at his wrists, but that had no effect on him.

Before she lost too much of her breath, she did the only thing she could. She pulled back her fist as far as she could and let it snap back. There was a satisfying crunch as it connected with Chase's nose.

He staggered back, before charging her again. She pulled out one leg and twisted it around his, making him trip and fall backwards onto the concrete floor. Before he had time to get up again, she grabbed him by the top of his head and underneath his chin and made one swift motion to the side and up.

Alex nearly threw up when she heard the resounding snap of Chase's spine as it broke. This time he didn't get back up again and she staggered back, panting heavily, only now feeling the exertion the fight had had on her. Adrenaline had given her strength or she probably wouldn't have beaten a resurrected corpse, even if he'd only ever been the wimpy type.

Jacob broke open the chain that kept the door to the cage closed and hurried inside.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Fine, go help Charlie," she said. He was still struggling with Thompson.

Jacob ran to aid Charlie and Alex went the other way, running out of the cage to confront Cameron.

He just managed to pick himself off the floor, grabbing the pouch with the tablets and the gun. He pointed it at Alex, but this time adrenaline was still too thick in her blood for her to back off.

With a smile she noticed what Cameron obviously hadn't. She quickly grabbed the gun arm, spinning in towards Cameron so her body was no longer in the line of fire. She managed to wring the gun from his hand and turned towards him again, flipping the hammer block with a click that seemed to echo unnaturally loud in the big warehouse. "Safety was on," she informed Cameron with a smile.

She looked back to see Jacob pulling Thompson off Charlie, but Thompson charged again, getting Charlie in a headlock and closing his other hand around Jacob's throat.

"Larry, stop," Jacob said, pulling Thompson's hand from his throat. "You can beat this. You're stronger than him." He was still struggling with the hand that continued to reach for his throat. Charlie had gone down on one knee. "Larry, your wife sent us."

Thompson's eyes widened and he stopped struggling against Jacob's grip, releasing Charlie who coughed and rubbed his throat and neck.

"Karen," Thompson muttered.

"Jacob," Alex yelled, snatching the pouch of tablets from Cameron's hand and throwing it over her shoulder. It flew over the side of the cage in a wide arc and Jacob caught it before it hit the ground.

"No!" Cameron yelled and was about to run after the pouch, but Alex stepped into his path, the gun still trained on him.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," she threatened. She'd seen enough tonight. Cameron's careless attitude towards death and the lives he'd destroyed made her mad enough to be able to pull the trigger if she had to. A tiny part in her mind even hoped he would make her do it.

"This is what you want," she heard Jacob behind her and knew he was giving Thompson the second half of his clay tablet.

"Jake, are you sure that's really such a good idea?" Charlie asked, but it was too late. Thompson had his tablet. She heard Charlie running towards her. "Alex, on your left," he said, before he reached over her outstretched arms from the left and grabbed the gun from her. Without thinking, it just seemed to be the next obvious step, she grabbed the handcuffs from Charlie's belt and walked around Cameron, grabbing his arms and pulling them onto his back. She wasn't being careful and he winced as she twisted his shoulder in the process.

"Larry!" Jacob shouted and Alex looked up. Thompson was coming towards them and Jacob was trying to hold him back, but without success.

"Give him to me," Thomson growled, glaring at Cameron.

"As much as I would like to do that, Larry, he's our responsibility now," Alex called over to him.

But Thompson came closer and closer. "Larry, stop," Alex said, but he just went on.

"Time to find out what a headshot does to a zombie," Charlie said, pointing his gun at Thompson.

"He's not a zombie," Alex and Jacob said in unison.

"You let him do this, it's murder," Cameron cried, shaking all over with fear.

But then Thompson walked passed Cameron, Jacob still pushing against his chest, trying to hold him back without hurting him.

"Where is he going?" Charlie asked.

Alex caught a gleam of gold on Thompson's finger. His wedding ring. "Oh God, I think I know where."

She let go of Cameron and hurried after Thompson. "Larry, stop," she shouted again, holding on to his sleeve.

He turned to her. "I want to see her."

"You're in no condition," she replied, nodding over to the dark window of a car one of the guests had left there before bolting from the police sirens.

Thompson turned towards the car, examining his face in it; his reddened eyes, his grayish pallor, the beginning of decay. Alex felt the fight go out of him, the arm in her hand growing limp.

He looked down at his wedding band and said sadly, "No." He shook his head. "Tell her I–"

"She knows," Alex replied, her voice growing thick again. She looked up at Thompson's tall form, at his massive, broad shoulders. There was fear in her heart, but not because of Thompson. The very thought of something like this happening to Jacob… that he could die and she wouldn't be able to say goodbye… it made her breath come short and her knees weak. Even if they would never be together, he would always be her best friend and she couldn't bear the idea of losing him. She loved him too much.

"And she loves you," Alex continued. "She knows you love her." Thompson looked defeated. She knew he wouldn't storm to his wife anymore. He couldn't do that to her, no matter how much he still wanted to see her.

"Maybe there is a way," Jacob said and they both looked at him.

* * *

><p>Jacob was glad when Mr. Santiago agreed to it. They'd brought Thompson back to the mortuary, where he should have been all this time.<p>

He was standing next to Alex in the preparation room, looking at Thompson who was lying on the metal table, looking like he really was dead. He could hear footsteps just beyond his room and knew there was no turning back now.

Alex hand grabbed his and she looked up at him with a sad smile. "Thank you, Jake, for thinking of this," she whispered, leaning her head against his shoulder.

"Let's see," he just replied, kissing her on the top of her head. He wished he could kiss her on the mouth instead.

Then Mr. Santiago led Mrs. Thompson into the room. Jacob could see the tears streaming down her cheeks, despite the dim light in the room.

She walked around the table, standing next to Thompson's head. "Oh, baby," she whispered, sniffling. She grabbed his hand, holding it up with both of hers and looking at his motionless face. "I'll always love you," she said, now sobbing harder. She stroked over his cheek. "It's like he's just asleep."

Jacob had to bite his tongue not to comment on that. Instead, he grabbed a few envelopes out of his coat pocket and handed them to Alex. "The betting money from the Drome," he whispered to her.

She looked at the money then at Mrs. Thompson. "I'll take care of it," she said quietly and walked up to Mrs. Thompson, putting a hand on her shoulder and gently guiding her out of the room.

Jacob waited until the women were out of the room and the door was closed, then he walked up to Thompson, putting a hand on his shoulder. "It's time, my friend," he said calmly, trying not to betray the giant lump in his throat.

The motionless mask of Thompson's face contorted into one of pure agony. He inhaled deeply as Jacob put the second half of his tablet into his hand.

"Thank you," Thompson said, "for giving me a second chance to say goodbye."

"That was the least we could do."

"Take good care of her, that girl of yours," Thompson said. "You never know how much time you've got left to enjoy."

Jacob could not reply. He didn't know what to say. So he silently watched as Thompson put the clay tablet into his mouth and swallowed. His eyes widened for a moment and he inhaled deeply. He released his breath with a shudder and Jacob could almost feel something other than air leave Thompson's body. Then he was dead.

Feeling numb all of a sudden, Jacob closed Thompson's eyes and folded his hands together over his chest. He heard Alex come back into the room, but she stood quietly by the door, making no sound.

For a few minutes they just stood there, not moving, not saying anything, just paying their last respects to Thompson.

"What's going to happen to Cameron?" Jacob asked, breaking the heavy silence.

"With any luck he'll go away for life for Thompson's and Crawford's murders," she answered, her gaze still fixed on Thompson's now truly dead body.

"Being caught in a warehouse surrounded by dead people shouldn't help his case any," Jacob said, also still looking at Thompson.

He couldn't believe this was it. Where was the happy ending? Why didn't Thompson get a second chance to live with his wife? It wasn't fair. He wasn't meant to die. He only died because some lunatic needed a challenger for his sick little game. Thompson could have lived for years, be happy with a wife he loved and who loved him. Instead he was lying on a cold, metal table, waiting to be embalmed. It just wasn't fair.

"Come on," Alex said quietly, grabbing Jacob's hand.

They walked silently to Alex's truck, their hands remaining joined. "I hope we'll never have a case like that again," she said.

"So do I," Jacob replied, noticing that she didn't hope they'd never have any case again. But he was too emotionally drained to argue with her now.

Seeing Alex at gunpoint the other night seemed like a nightmare to him now. Somehow surreal. She'd handled it well. He knew she could. She probably knew more about these situations than Jacob did, but he didn't want to see it ever happening again.

Looking back, he realized that last night had been the third time that he nearly lost her for good. The closest to it had been when she'd almost died by the demon's hands. Then it had been her mother who'd almost taken Alex away from him. Alex wouldn't have died, but he probably wouldn't have ever seen her again and she would have been stuck in the ghettos of Detroit. And last night she had come close to being killed again.

The first two times he would have lost a friend. Last night he would have officially lost a friend, but his heart would have lost so much more.

He couldn't live without Alex anymore. He needed her like the air to breathe. If not as his lover than at least as his best friend.

He thought back to the night the Demon Lord had nearly killed her. She would have been gone, just after he'd met her and Jacob would have never known what he'd lost. He would have gone on like before, his heart probably hurting a little bit more as he added the loss of a close friend.

Now he knew better. Now he knew what a wonderful girl could have died that night. Now he knew what a beautiful flower would have wilted away in Detroit. Now he knew the potential lover who could have been shot last night.

A shudder ran down his back as he drove down the road and he looked over to see Alex staring out the windshield, deep in thought.

"What's on your mind?" he asked and she turned her head to look at him, smiling slightly.

"How glad I am that you're always right there beside me," she replied.

Smiling back at her, he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer, so she leaned against his side, her head resting on his shoulder. That's where she belonged, right there with him. And that's where he belonged, too. By her side.

"Always, Alex," he said. "I've already promised you that. I'll keep you safe from everything I can and hold your hand through everything else."

* * *

><p><strong>So the case is done. But are Jake and Alex finally getting together? Find out in the final chapter of Blood Rage. Write me lots of reviews and it'll be up in no time.<strong>


	8. Fireworks

**Chapter 08: Fireworks**

Jacob was fast asleep when he was suddenly torn out of his dreams by someone shaking him awake. His eyes flew open and he saw Quil standing above him.

He let out a stream of curses.

"Watch out, Jake, you still wanna eat with that mouth, don't you?" Quil said cheerily, plopping down on Jacob's bed.

"What the fuck did you wake me for?" Jacob snapped. It was Monday the thirty-first and ten o'clock in the morning. Jacob had had patrol all of last night and he'd intended to catch some sleep so he'd be fit for Gillian's New Year's Eve party tonight.

"A package just arrived for you," Quil announced.

"So?" Jacob thought hard, but he couldn't recall having ordered anything recently. Maybe he'd accidentally ordered some of his father's medication under his own name.

"It's the Christmas present from Alex." Jacob jumped out of bed so quickly Quil fell backwards off the mattress and landed hard on the floor. "Hey, man, that's not cool," he said, rubbing the back of his head as he scrambled up again. But Jacob didn't listen. He threw on a pair of pants and a t-shirt and ran down the hall to the living room.

"Good morning, Jake," he was greeted from Billy, Embry, Seth and Leah.

"Hey, you guys," he said, surprised to see them all here. Did they usually have pack meetings while their Alpha was asleep?

"It's on the table," Embry said with a snicker, noticing Jacob glancing around.

Jacob hurried over to the big box that stood on the kitchen table. It was wrapped in silver paper with a blue ribbon around it and a printed card. He grabbed the card first and read; '_Merry Christmas, Jake. Forever yours, Alex._'

He smiled and set the card aside, his thumb tracing over the '_Forever yours_'. If only.

His curiosity at a maximum, having had to wait so damn long, he didn't bother trying to pretend like he was going to preserve the wrapping paper and just tore it off. When the paper was gone he just stared at the box inside with his mouth wide open.

"Damn," Quil said with a whistle.

"_O-kay_," was Leah's comment, clearly incapable of appreciating the contents.

"She's crazy," Jacob breathed, backing away in awe, looking at his wish-come-true.

On his table was a brand new _Makita LCT200W 18-Volt Compact Lithium-Ion Cordless 2-Piece Combo Kit_. It contained a two-speed, half-inch driver-drill which delivered 450 in/lbs. of maximum torque and weighed only 3.5 lbs. and a variable-speed impact driver, providing 1,280 in./lbs. of maximum torque and weighed only 2.8 lbs. Both tools featured a built-in LED light and an ergonomic shape for even pressure and easy control and included two compact lithium-ion batteries and an Energy-Star-rated fifteen-minute rapid charger. On closer inspection he realized she'd added an accessory set as well.

"How can she do that?" Jacob asked, running both his hands through his hair. Depending on where she bought it, the price varied somewhere between three and five hundred dollars. "How can she spend so much money?" A terrible thought occurred to him in that moment. Was it because of what had happened with her mother? Because Miranda had stolen two thousand dollars from him? He'd told Alex he didn't want her to pay him back since it wasn't her fault. Nor had he pressed charges against Miranda so Charlie wouldn't be embarrassed. Was Alex trying to get the money back to him over expensive gifts?

"Yeah," Quil said with a sarcastic snort, tearing Jacob out of his gloomy thoughts. "Remember Paul when he fell in love with Rachel and bought her that ridiculously expensive brooch?"

The room was suddenly dead silent.

Jacob turned on Quil, noticing that everybody was glaring at the boy and that his eyes had turned the size of saucers.

"What did you just say?" Jacob asked, taking a step towards Quil, who shrank into the couch cushions under Leah's glowering gaze.

Quil gulped. "Expensive brooch?"

"No," Jacob said, "the love part?"

Quil's mouth opened and closed a few times in a failed attempt to salvage his slip-up, making him look like a fish out of water.

"Oh… my God." The swarm of butterflies took wing so fast in Jacob's stomach he felt lightheaded for a moment. He fell back onto the seat behind him. "Alex loves me," he breathed, not quite able to believe it yet. The elation in him rose as his heart beat faster.

"You were supposed to keep your trap shut," Leah growled at Quil.

"It slipped out, I'm sorry," he apologized, looking like a beaten puppy.

"Why were you supposed to keep it from me?" Jacob asked, worry now dampening the flood of joy in him.

"Alex was supposed to tell you herself and she was waiting for you to finally get over Bella," Leah answered with a sigh.

"Get over Bella? How long has this been going on?"

"Since Detroit," Leah said with a wince, clearly feeling like she was betraying Alex.

Jacob gasped for air. That had been seven months ago. She'd been in love with him for seven months and he hadn't noticed? How stupid could he be?

"I have to go over to her," he said already running for the door.

"She's not home, Jake," Billy called after him and he stopped in his tracks.

"Where is she?"

"Over at Gillian's, preparing for the party tonight," he answered.

The party. He'd almost forgotten. He couldn't go over there now then, not when she was busy. He had a better idea and it would take everything he had to keep himself from storming over, gather her into his arms and finally kiss her the way he'd wanted to for the last few months.

When Jacob arrived with the others at the party, the huge living room was already full of people. The furniture had been moved into one of the other rooms and everywhere hung Christmas decoration and strings of light.

He spotted Alex helping Mrs. Summers prepare the buffet. So far he'd only ever seen her wear a dress once to Emily and Sam's wedding and he'd almost forgotten just how good she looked in one. This time she wore a simple, knee-long, black, jersey wrap dress, tied shut at the side and with sleeves that went just passed her elbows and black, four-inch pumps. He saw the glimmer of silver from the pendant he'd given her from the v-neckline. She'd straightened her curls to locks and put them up in a beautiful bun with a few strands casually falling into her face. She was laughing at something Gillian had said. Her smile practically seemed to light up the room.

"God, she's beautiful," he said quietly.

"Oh boy, it hit you hard, hasn't it?" Quil teased.

"That's obvious. But Alex really_ is_ beautiful," Embry replied, patting Jacob on the shoulder. "Good luck, man."

"I guess you'll be getting a jock strap from me for your birthday," Quil said with a grin. "Alex fights dirty."

* * *

><p>Alex felt disappointed. All evening Jacob had avoided her. She'd hoped he'd dance with her at least. But now everyone was counting down to midnight, partnering together for that lucky kiss. She hadn't expected him to kiss her, a peck at best. But she hadn't expected to be standing in the middle of the crowd all alone.<p>

Nine, eight, seven…

At that moment she saw Jacob come towards her with a purposeful stride. Her mouth went dry at the sight of him. He was wearing black dress pants, probably the ones from the wedding, and a white dress shirt. He'd rolled up the sleeves to his elbows, accentuating his toned underarms and he'd opened the first two buttons of his shirt, showing a sliver of the perfectly sculpted chest underneath. He smiled at her, his white teeth contrasting with his dark, russet skin, making everything around him light up.

Six, five, four …

He came to a halt in front of her. His eyes caught hers and her breath hitched. She knew that smoldering, desiring gaze. She'd seen it almost every night in her dreams. His pupils were dilated and some scientific voice in the back of her head reminded her that pupils dilated when someone saw something they wanted.

Three, two…

He held her face in both his palms, and came closer and closer.

One…

The room around them exploded in cheers, but Alex heard none of it. His lips were on hers, hot and soft, molding against hers with gentle force. One hand snaked around the back of his neck, while the fingers of her other hand threaded into his soft hair. His hands, that had held her face still a moment ago, slipped down to her back and waist, pulling her closer to his body.

Alex wanted this moment to stand still in time. Everything should stay just the way it was right now with Jacob finally kissing her. _Really_ kissing her.

She felt his tongue brush over her lower lip and she didn't have to think twice about parting her own lips and meeting his tongue with hers. He tasted perfectly of the cinnamon rolls Mrs. Summers had made and the punch.

After another moment they finally pulled apart, panting from the lack of oxygen. Sound returned to Alex first and she could hear applause and hollering. Then the room around them gradually shifted back into existence and she blushed when she noticed everyone had circled around Jacob and her and where, in fact, applauding them. Her gaze travelled to Billy and Charlie, who grinned happily at each other.

Then she looked back at Jacob, who smiled down at her. "I'm sorry I made you wait," he said softly.

"That's okay," she replied and pulled his face down for another kiss.

"Get a room," she heard Paul yell and she could feel Jacob's lips form into a grin against hers.

"Fireworks are about to begin," Mr. Summers said, walking into the room. He'd been outside and was completely oblivious to what had just happened.

"Come on, everyone," Mrs. Summers said, shooing everyone out into the yard, leaving Alex and Jacob to themselves.

"I can't… believe… you'd spend… so much money… on… my… Christmas present," Jacob said between kisses. Alex could barely get enough of kissing him. Now that she finally could, she wanted to be glued to his lips. Literally.

"I can't believe you searched for mine for weeks," she replied, looking up at him, her arms still around his neck and his around her waist.

"Guess we both could have saved ourselves a lot of trouble and money if we'd just been outright about our feelings," Jacob assumed.

"Probably," Alex replied, leaning up for another kiss. When they broke apart again she slapped him on the upper arm. "But why the hell did you ignore me all evening?"

He chuckled. "Because I wanted to kiss you at midnight and I would never have managed to wait that long if I had you in my arms already," he answered truthfully.

"That would have been fine, too," she said.

"Yes, it would have been, but maybe this'll bring us luck." He tilted her chin up and kissed her again. The kiss wasn't as passionate this time; it was softer, more loving. They only pulled apart when they heard the distinctive whistling sound with the loud bang at the end that signaled the beginning of the fireworks. "Come on, let's go," Jacob said, grabbing her hand and pulling her outside to the rest of the crowd.

People were waving or winking at them, some even congratulated them. Most wore the expression of an exaggerated '_Finally!_' on their faces.

"Guess the only ones we managed to fool were ourselves," Alex noted with a smile.

"You're always the last to know." He wrapped his warm arms around her from behind to keep her safe from the cold and kissed her on the top of her head as they watched the fireworks that reflected the feelings in their stomachs.

She put her hands over his, entangling their fingers. The fireworks were beautiful. Mr. Summers really knew his stuff and he was having fun, too. Like a child in a toy shop. Which, admittedly, worried Alex just a tiny bit.

"Happy New Year, by the way," Jacob whispered into her ear.

"Happy New Year to you, too." She replied, turning in his arms and kissing him yet again. She didn't think she would ever grow tired of that. His lips just felt so perfect on hers.

It was an unexpected start into the new year, but she didn't mind. It was the perfect start…

_The End_

If an angel came down to me, asked what I would do differently

I would say nothing, you see, I love someone truly

And if I do not see tomorrow, you know it's gonna be alright

'Cause I got my baby right by my side

And if the rain ain't falling and the sun ain't shining

It makes no difference to me I'm right where I wanna be

And if tonight is my last what I gotta do?

And if tonight is my last I wanna spend it with you

And if the sky falls down it's gonna be alright

'Cause I got you here tonight

If I had to give all that I own

In return for the love that's grown

I would give it gladly 'cause nothing else compares

To the moments that we shared

And if the rain ain't falling and the sun ain't shining

It makes no difference to me I'm right where I wanna be

And if tonight is my last what I gotta do?

And if tonight is my last I wanna spend it with you

And if the sky falls down it's gonna be alright

'Cause I got you here tonight

Only given a short time on this earth

You gotta make each moment worth something beautiful

You gotta give every bit of you for the love

Half just won't do

And if tonight is my last what I gotta do?

And if tonight is my last I wanna spend it with you

And if the sky falls down it's gonna be alright

'Cause I got you here tonight

If tonight is my last what I gotta do?

(It's gonna be alright, it's gonna be alright)

If tonight is my last I wanna spend it with you

(It's gonna be alright, it's gonna be alright)

And if the sky falls down it's gonna be alright

(It's gonna be alright, it's gonna be alright)

Because I got you here tonight, here tonight

(It's gonna be alright, it's gonna be alright)

It's gonna be alright

If an angel came down to me, asked what I would do differently

I would say nothing, you see, I love someone truly

"If Tonight Is My Last" – Laura Izibor

* * *

><p><strong>Yay, they're finally together. I was very amused with last chapter's comments. Everyone wants to know how this installment's final chapter looks like. Well, I assume you all meant this one… BUT… it's not the final one. You've guessed it! There's another part.<strong>

**And it's called **_**Blood Guilt**_**. And now that they're together the next story is gonna be **_**steamy**_**.**

**I'll add a few more chapters to the Short Story Collection before Blood Guilt starts, but, like always, you get a little taste of the next story:**

**Short Summary: **Charlie asks Alex and Jacob to find the father of a girl who's just lost its mother in a mysterious murder. Not so easy when distracted by their raging desires for each other. Rated M for mature themes.

**And for those who just need a little more convincing:**

When Alex finally got home the first thing she did was grab a quick shower. When she came down again, Jacob was sitting on the couch, flipping through channels. He never rang the doorbell anymore, particularly not when he came by so late, so he wouldn't ring Charlie out of bed. Instead he used the spare key Alex had handed to him. Surprisingly, giving Jacob a key to the house had been Charlie's idea. She assumed Charlie had been worried Jacob would find a different way into the house, possibly breaking the door or some window in the process.

"You look like you've had a long day," Jacob said when she sat down beside him.

"I'm exhausted," she replied. "Don't think I'm complaining, but I think an entire morning of sex and an evening running around the restaurant is just a little too much."

He chuckled, grabbed her legs and pulled them onto his lap. Alex moved with him, turning sideways and lying down with her head on the armrest of the couch. "Oh God, that feels good," she moaned when he started massaging her, his warm thumbs moving over the top of her right foot with just the right amount of pressure to smooth out the muscles there.

"Seth said Leah's back in town," Jacob said, continuing to rub the ball of her foot. Alex inhaled and exhaled deeply with pleasure, practically melting into the soft couch cushions.

"Yeah, she came by the restaurant," Alex said, her eyes fluttering closed. "Wanted to know when we move to Seattle so she can have the wedding before that." He moved down to the arch of her foot, moving his thumbs in small circles, applying a bit more pressure. "Oh God, Jake," she breathed. That man truly had magic fingers.

"How long is she here for?"

She moaned as he moved on to her heel. "Till Tuesday. She's gonna drop by Sam and Emily's tomorrow." Emily was getting pretty round. The baby could be coming any day now.

"I'll give her a call then, maybe she'd like to meet up." If Alex were a different girl and Jacob were a different boy, she was sure she'd feel suspicious about his eagerness to meet up with a gorgeous woman like Leah, but Alex was very secure in her own looks and Jacob was loyalty in persona. Leah was just one of Jacob's closest friends and Alex knew that.

He pushed the loose fitting leg of her pajama pants up to her knee so he could knead her calf.

"I'm sure," Alex replied. After a while he moved on to her other leg, beginning the massaging process anew. She watched his dark, big hands, move over her paler skin, molding it to his will, feeling her muscles relax under his touch and warmth. It always amazed her to see how his large hands could do such delicate work.

"That almost makes up for the stunt you pulled this morning," she said, meaning his hand in her pants while Charlie was sitting across from them.

He chuckled again. "Well, maybe you'll redeem me entirely when I continue this massage on the rest of your body."

She was perfectly aware that he could smell her instant arousal and his wolfish grin confirmed it, but she couldn't help being turned on by the thought of having his perfect hands on every part of her body. "That might just work," she said with a smile.

Putting her legs down once he finished on her second calf, he got up, turned off the TV and bent down to pick Alex up with one hand under her knees and the other at her back. "Then we should try it."

**Well, if you wanna read the juicy part, I'm afraid you'll have to wait for Blood Guilt to start.**

**I'll hope I'll get lots of wonderful reviews on the final chapter of Blood Rage and of course I hope to see you all again soon when the fourth part starts. Until then! Auf Wiedersehen! Adieu! Sayonara! **


End file.
